fEXLIBKISUNIVERSI!YOFCALIFOKNIA* 


JOHN  HENRY  NASH  LIBRARY 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

ROBERT  GORDON  SPROULPRESIDENT. 


MR.ANDMRS.MILTON  S.RAV 
CECILY,  VIRGINIAANDROSALYN  RAY 

AND  THE 

RAY  OIL  BURNER  COMPANY 


The  Committee  on  Publications  of  the  Grolier  Club 
certifies  that  this  copy  of  "One  Hundred  Books 
Famous  in  English  Literature"  is  one  of  three 
hundred  and  five  copies  printed  on  hand-made 
paper,  and  that  all  were  printed  during  the  year 
nineteen  hundred  and  two. 


ONE  HUNDRED  BOOKS 


FAMOUS  IN 


ENGLISH    LI   'ERATURE 


§  ONE  HUNDRED  BOOKS 

|  FAMOUS  IN 

|     ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

j  WITH    FACSIMILES  OF 

j  THE  TITLE-PAGES 

AND  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

I 

GEORGE   E.  WOODBERRY 


Copyright,  1902,  by 

THE  GROLIER  CLUB  OF  THE 

CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


FACSIMILE   TITLES 

TITLE  AUTHOR  DATE  PAGE 

First  Page  of  the  Canterbury  Tales .     .     .  Chaucer      .  1478  .  3 

First  Page  of  the  Confessio  Amantis     .     .  Gower  .     .  1483  .  5 

First  Page  of  the  Morte  Arthure      .     .     .  Malory       .  1485  .  7 

The  Booke  of  Common  Praier 1 549  .  9 

The  Vision  of  Pierce  Plowman    ....  Langland  .  1550  .  n 

Chronicles  of  England,  Scotlande,  and 

Irelande Holinshed  .  1577  .  13 

A  Myrrour  for  Magistrates 1 563  .  1 5 

Songes  and  Sonettes Surrey   .     .  1567  .  17 

The  Tragidie  of  Ferrex  and  Porrex      .     .  Sackville     .  1570  .  19 

Euphues.     The  Anatomy  of  Wit      .     .     .  Lylie     .     .  1579  .  21 

The  Countesse  of  Pembrokes  Arcadia  .     .  Sidney  .     .  1590  .  23 

The  Faerie  Queene Spenser.     .  1590  .  25 

Essaies Bacon    .     .  1598  .  27 

The  Principal  Navigations,  Voiages, 
Traffiques  and  Discoveries  of  the 

English  Nation Hakluyt     .  1598  .  29 

The  Whole  Works  of  Homer      ....  Chapman   .  1 6 1 1  .  31 

TM,    u  i    TJ-UI  King  James's  , 

The  Holy  Bible tf     •  1611.  *•* 

Version 

The  Workes  of  Benjamin  Jonson     .     .     .  Jonson  .     .  1616  .  35 

The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy Burton  .     .  1621  .  37 

vii 


FACSIMILE   TITLES 

TITLE  AUTHOR  DATE  PAGE 

Mr.  William  Shakespeares  Comedies,  His- 
tories, &  Tragedies Shakespeare  1623  .       39 

The  Tragedy  of  the  Dutchesse  of  Malfy  .  Webster      .  1623  .       41 

A  New  Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts  ....  Massinger  .  1633  .       43 

The  Broken  Heart Ford      .     .  1633  .       45 

The  Famous  Tragedy  of  the  Rich  Jew  of 

Malta Marlowe     .  1633  .       47 


The  Temple Herbert  .  1633  .  49 

Poems Donne  .  .  1633  .  51 

Religio  Medici Browne.  .  1642  .  53 

The  Workes  of  Edmond  Waller  Esquire 1645  .  55 

Comedies  and  Tragedies and^Sdier  l6^  '  57 

Hesperides Herrick .  .  1648  .  59 

The  Rule  and  Exercises  of  Holy  Living  .  Taylor  .  .  1650  .  61 

The  Compleat  Angler Walton  .  .  1653  .  63 

Hudibras Butler    .  .  1663  .  65 

Paradise  Lost Milton  .  .  1667  .  67 

The  Pilgrims  Progress Bunyan .  .  1678  .  69 

Absalom  and  Achitophel Dryden  .  .  1681  .  71 

An  Essay  Concerning  Humane  Understanding  Locke   .  .  1690  .  73 

The  Way  of  the  World Congreve  .  1700  .  75 

The  History  of  the  Rebellion  and  Civil 

Wars  in  England Clarendon  .  1702  .  77 

The  Lucubrations  of  Isaac  Bickerstaff  Esq.  Steele     .  .  1710  .  79 

The  Spectator Addison  .  1711  .  81 

The  Life  and  Strange  Surprizing  Adventures 

of  Robinson  Crusoe Defoe    .  .  1719  .  83 

viii 


FACSIMILE   TITLES 

TITLE  AUTHOR  DATE  PAGE 

Travels  into  Several  Remote  Nations  of 

the  World Swift      .     .  1726  .  85 

An  Essay  on  Man Pope      .     .  1733  .  87 

The  Analogy  of  Religion Butler    .     .  1736  .  89 

Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry      .     .  Percy     .     .  1765  .  91 

Odes  on  Several  Descriptive  and  Allegoric 

Subjects Collins  .     .  1747  .  93 

Clarissa Richardson  1748  .  95 

The  History  of  Tom  Jones Fielding     .  1749  .  97 

An  Elegy  Wrote  in  a  Country  Church  Yard  Gray      .     .  1751  .  99 

A  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language     .  Johnson      .  1755  .  101 

Poor  Richard's  Almanack Franklin     .  1758  .  103 

Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England    .  Blackstone.  1765  .  105 

The  Vicar  of  Wakefield Goldsmith.  1766  .  107 

A  Sentimental  Journey Sterne    .     .  1768  .  109 

The  Federalist 1788  .  in 

The  Expedition  of  Humphry  Clinker  .     .  Smollett      i6[7J7i  .  113 

An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of 

the  Wealth  of  Nations Smith     .     .  1776  .  115 

The  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 

Roman  Empire Gibbon  .     .  1776  .  117 

The  School  for  Scandal Sheridan     .  1777  .  119 

The  Task Cowper      .  1785  .  121 

Poems,  Chiefly  in  the  Scottish  Dialect  .     .  Burns    .     .  1786  .  123 

The  Natural  History  and  Antiquities  of 

Selborne White    .     .  1789  .  125 

Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France  .  Burke     .     .  1790  .  127 

ix 


FACSIMILE   TITLES 

TITLE  AUTHOR  DATE  PAGE 

Rights  of  Man Paine     .     .  1791  .  129 

The  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson Boswell.     .  1791  .  131 

Lyrical  Ballads Wordsworth  1798  .  133 

A  History  of  New  York,  from  the  Begin- 
ning of  the  World  to  the  End  of  the 

Dutch  Dynasty Irving    .     .  1809  .  135 

Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage Byron    .     .  1812  .  137 

Pride  and  Prejudice Austen  .     .  1813  .  139 

Christabel Coleridge   .  1816  .  141 

Ivanhoe Scott      .     .  1820  .  143 

Lamia,  Isabella,  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  and 

Other  Poems Keats     .     .  1820  .  145 

Adonais Shelley  .     .  1821  .  147 

Elia Lamb     .     .  1823  .  149 

Memoirs  of  Samuel  Pepys,  Esq.  F.R.S.    .  Pepys     .     .  1825  .  151 

The  Last  of  the  Mohicans Cooper.     .  1826  .  153 

Pericles  and  Aspasia Landor .     .  1836  .  155 

The  Pickwick  Papers Dickens      .  1837  .  157 

Sartor  Resartus Carlyle  .     .  1834  .  159 

Nature Emerson     .  1836  .  161 

History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru      .     .     .  Prescott      .  1847  .  163 

The  Raven  and  Other  Poems     ....  Poe  .     .     .  1845  .  165 

Jane  Eyre Bronte  .     .  1847  .  167 

Evangeline Longfellow  1847  .  169 

Sonnets Mrs.  Browning  184  7  .  171 

The  Biglow  Papers Lowell  .     .  1848  .  173 

Vanity  Fair Thackeray.  1848  .  175 


FACSIMILE   TITLES 

TITLE  AUTHOR  DATE  PAGE 

The  History  of  England Macaulay  .  1 849  .  177 

In  Memoriam Tennyson   .  1850  .  179 

The  Scarlet  Letter Hawthorne  1850  .  181 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin Mrs.  Stowe  1852  .  183 

The  Stones  of  Venice Ruskin  .     .  1851  .  185 

Men  and  Women Browning  .  1855  .  187 

The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic     .     .     .  Motley.     .  1856  .  189 

Adam  Bede George  Eliot  1859  .  191 

On  the  Origin  of  Species  by  Means  of 

Natural  Selection Darwin.     .  1859  .  193 

Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam Fitzgerald  .  1859  .  195 

Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua Newman    .  1864  .  197 

Essays  in  Criticism Arnold  .     .  1865  .  199 

Snow-Bound    .     .     .  Whittier  1866  201 


Except  where  noted,  all  facsimiles  of  title-pages 
are  of  the  size  of  those  in  the  original  editions. 


XI 


INTRODUCTION 


BOOK  is  judged  by  its  peers. 
In  the  presence  of  the  greater 
works  of  authors  there  is  no 
room  for  personal  criticism; 
they  constitute  in  themselves 
the  perpetual  mind  of  the  race, 
and  dispense  with  any  private 
view.  The  eye  rests  on  these  hundred  titles  of 
books  famous  in  English  literature,  as  it  reads  a 
physical  map  by  peak,  river  and  coast,  and  sees 
in  miniature  the  intellectual  conformation  of  a  na- 
tion. A  different  selection  would  only  mean  an- 
other point  of  view ;  some  minor  features  might  be 
replaced  by  others  of  similar  subordination;  but 
the  mass  of  imagination  and  learning,  the  mind- 
achievement  of  the  English  race,  is  as  unchange- 
able as  a  mountain  landscape.  Perspective  thrusts 
its  unconscious  judgment  upon  the  organs  of 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

sight,  also;  if  Gower  is  thin  with  distance  and  the 
clump  of  the  Elizabethans  shows  crowded  with 
low  spurs,  the  eye  is  not  therefore  deceived  by 
the  large  pettiness  of  the  foreground  with  its  more 
numerous  and  distinct  details.  The  mass  governs. 
Darwin  appeals  to  Milton;  Shelley  is  judged  by 
Pope,  and  Hawthorne  by  Congreve. 

These  books  must  of  necessity  be  national  books; 
for  fame,  which  is  essentially  the  highest  gift  of 
which  man  has  the  giving,  cannot  be  conferred  ex- 
cept by  a  public  voice.  Fame  dwells  upon  the  lips 
of  men.  It  is  not  that  memorable  books  must  all 
be  people's  books,  though  the  greatest  are  such 
— the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  Bible,  Shake- 
speare; but  those  which  embody  some  rare  intel- 
lectual power,  or  illuminate  some  seldom  visited 
tract  of  the  spirit,  or  merely  display  some  peculiar 
taste  in  learning  or  pastime,  must  yet  have  some- 
thing racial  in  them,  something  public,  to  secure 
their  hold  against  the  detaching  power  of  time; 
they  must  be  English  books,  not  in  tongue  only, 
but  body  and  soul.  They  are  not  less  the  books 
of  a  nation  because  they  are  remote,  superfine,  un- 
common. Such  are  the  books  of  the  poets — the 
Faerie  Queene;  books  of  the  nobles  —  Arcadia; 
books  of  the  scholar — the  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly. These  books  open  the  national  genius  as 
truly,  kind  by  kind,  as  books  of  knowledge  exhibit 
the  nation's  advancement  in  learning,  stage  by 
stage,  when  new  sciences  are  brought  to  the  birth. 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

The  Wealth  of  Nations,  Locke's  Essay,  Black- 
stone's  Commentaries,  are  not  merely  the  product 
of  private  minds.  They  are  landmarks  of  English 
intellect;  and  more,  since  they  pass  insensibly  into 
the  power  of  civilization  in  the  land,  feeding  the 
general  mind.  The  limited  appeal  that  many  clas- 
sics made  in  their  age,  and  still  make,  indicates 
lack  of  development  in  particular  persons;  but 
however  numerous  such  individuals  may  be,  in 
whatever  majorities  they  may  mass,  the  mind  of 
the  race,  once  having  flowered,  has  flowered  with 
the  vigor  of  the  stock.  The  Compleat  Angler  finds 
a  rustic  breast  under  much  staid  cloth ;  Pepys  was 
never  at  a  loss  for  a  gossip  since  his  seals  were 
broken,  and  Donne  evokes  his  fellow-eccentric 
whose  hermitage  is  the  scholar's  bosom;  but 
whether  the  charm  work  on  few  or  on  many  is  in- 
different, for  whom  they  affect,  they  affect  through 
consanguinity.  The  books  of  a  nation  are  those 
which  are  appropriate  to  its  genius  and  embody 
its  variations  amid  the  changes  of  time;  even  its 
sports,  like  Euphues,  are  itself;  and  the  works 
which  denote  the  evolution  of  its  civilized  life  in 
fructifying  progress,  whose  increasing  diversities 
are  yet  held  in  the  higher  harmony  of  one  race,  one 
temperament,  one  destiny,  are  without  metaphor 
its  Sibylline  books,  and  true  oracles  of  empire. 

It  is  a  sign  of  race  in  literature  that  a  book  can 
spare  what  is  private  to  its  author,  and  comes  at 
last  to  forgo  his  earth-life  altogether.  This  is 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

obvious  of  works  of  knowledge,  since  positive 
truth  gains  nothing  from  personality,  but  feels  it 
as  an  alloy;  and  a  wise  analysis  will  affirm  the 
same  of  all  long-lived  books.  Works  of  science 
are  charters  of  nature,  and  submit  to  no  human 
caprice;  and,  in  a  similar  way,  works  of  imagina- 
tion, which  are  to  the  inward  world  of  the  spirit 
what  works  of  science  are  to  the  natural  universe, 
are  charters  of  the  soul,  and  borrow  nothing  from 
the  hand  that  wrote  them.  How  deciduous  such 
books  are  of  the  private  life  needs  only  to  be 
stated  to  be  allowed.  They  cast  biography  from 
them  like  the  cloak  of  the  ascending  prophet.  An 
author  is  not  rightly  to  be  reckoned  among  im- 
mortals until  he  has  been  forgotten  as  a  man,  and 
become  a  shade  in  human  memory,  the  myth  of 
his  own  work.  The  anecdote  lingering  in  the 
Mermaid  Tavern  is  cocoon-stuff,  and  left  for 
waste;  time  spiritualizes  the  soul  it  released  in 
Shakespeare,  and  the  speedier  the  change,  so 
much  the  purer  is  the  warrant  of  a  life  above 
death  in  the  minds  of  men.  The  loneliness  of 
antique  names  is  the  austerity  of  fame,  and  only 
therewith  do  Milton,  Spenser,  Chaucer,  seem  nobly 
clad  and  among  equals;  the  nude  figure  of  Shelley 
at  Oxford  is  symbolical  and  prophetic  of  this  dis- 
encumberment  of  mortality,  the  freed  soul  of  the 
poet, —  like  Bion,  a  divine  form.  Not  to  speak  of 
those  greatest  works,  the  Prayer  Book,  the  Bible, 
which  seem  so  impersonal  in  origin  as  to  be  the 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

creation  of  the  English  tongue  itself  and  the 
genius  of  language  adoring  God;  nor  of  Hakluyt 
or  Clarendon,  whose  books  are  all  men's  actions; 
how  little  do  the  most  isolated  and  seclusive 
authors,  Surrey,  Collins,  Keats,  perpetuate  except 
the  pure  poet!  In  these  hundred  famous  books 
there  are  few  valued  for  aught  more  than  they 
contain  in  themselves,  or  which  require  any  other 
light  to  read  them  by  than  what  they  bring  with 
them;  they  are  rather  hampered  than  helped  by 
the  recollection  of  their  authors'  careers.  Sidney 
adds  lustre  to  the  Arcadia;  an  exception  among 
men,  in  this  as  in  all  other  ways,  by  virtue  of  that 
something  supereminent  in  him  which  dazzled  his 
own  age.  But  who  else  of  famous  authors  is 
greater  in  his  life  than  in  his  book?  It  is  the 
book  that  gives  significance  to  the  man,  not  the 
man  to  the  book.  These  authors  would  gain  by 
oblivion  of  themselves,  and  that  in  proportion  to 
their  greatness,  thereby  being  at  once  removed 
into  the  impersonal  region  of  man's  permanent 
spirit  and  of  art.  The  exceptions  are  only  seem- 
ingly such;  it  is  Johnson's  thought  and  the  style 
of  a  great  mind  that  preserve  Boswell,  not  his 
human  grossness;  and  in  Pepys  it  is  the  mundane 
and  every-day  immortality  of  human  nature,  this 
permanently  curious  and  impertinent  world,  not 
his  own  scandal  and  peepings,  that  yield  him 
allowance  in  libraries.  In  all  books  to  which  a  na- 
tion stands  heir,  it  is  man  that  survives, — the  as- 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

pect  of  an  epoch,  the  phase  of  a  religion,  the  mood 
of  a  generation,  the  taste,  sentiment,  thought,  pur- 
suit, entertainment,  of  a  historic  and  diversified 
people.  There  is  nothing  accidental  in  the  fact 
that  of  these  hundred  books  forty-six  bear  no 
author's  name  upon  the  title-page;  nor  is  this  due 
merely  to  the  eldest  style  of  printing,  as  with 
Chaucer,  Gower,  Malory,  Langland;  nor  to  the 
inclusion  of  works  by  several  hands — the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates, 
the  Tatler,  the  Spectator,  the  Reliques,  the  Fed- 
eralist; nor  to  the  use  of  initials,  as  in  the  case 
of  Donne  and  Mrs.  Browning.  The  characteris- 
tic is  constant.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  names 
thus  self-suppressed:  Sackville,  Spenser,  Bacon, 
Burton,  Browne,  Walton,  Butler,  Dryden,  Locke, 
Defoe,  Swift,  Pope,  Richardson,  Gray,  Franklin, 
Goldsmith,  Sterne,  Smollett,  Sheridan,  White, 
Wordsworth,  Irving,  Austen,  Scott,  Lamb,  Cooper, 
Carlyle,  Emerson,  Bronte,  Lowell,  Tennyson, 
George  Eliot,  Fitzgerald. 

The  broad  and  various  nationality  of  English 
literature  is  a  condition  precedent  to  greatness,  and 
underlies  its  mighty  fortune.  Its  chief  glory  is  its 
continuity,  by  which  it  exceeds  the  moderns,  and 
must,  with  ages,  surpass  antiquity.  Literary  ge- 
nius has  been  so  unfailing  in  the  English  race 
that  men  of  this  blood  live  in  the  error  that  litera- 
ture, like  light  and  air,  is  a  common  element  in 
the  life  of  populations.  Literature  is  really  the 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

work  of  selected  nations,  and  with  them  is  not  a 
constant  product.  Many  nations  have  no  litera- 
ture, and  in  fertile  nations  there  are  barren  cen- 
turies. The  splendid  perpetuity  of  Greek  literature, 
which  covered  two  thousand  years,  was  yet  broken 
by  lean  ages,  by  periods  of  desert  dearth.  In  the 
English,  beginning  from  Chaucer  (as  is  just,  since 
he  is  our  Homer,  whatever  ages  went  before  Troy 
or  Canterbury),  there  have  been  reigns  without 
a  poet;  and  Greek  example  might  prepare  the 
mind  for  Alexandrian  and  Byzantine  periods  in 
the  future,  were  it  not  for  the  grand  combinations 
of  world-colonies  and  world-contacts  which  open 
new  perspectives  of  time  for  which  the  mind,  as 
part  of  its  faith  in  life,  requires  destinies  as  large. 
The  gaps,  however,  were  greatest  at  the  be- 
ginning, and  grow  less.  One  soil,  one  govern- 
ment, one  evenly  unfolded  civilization — long  life 
in  the  settled  and  peaceful  land — contribute  to  this 
continuity  of  literature  in  the  English;  but  its  ex- 
planation lies  in  the  integrity  of  English  nurture, 
and  this  is  essentially  the  same  in  all  persons  of 
English  blood.  Homer  was  not  more  truly  the 
school  of  Greece  than  the  Bible  has  been  the 
school  of  the  English.  It  has  overcome  all  exter- 
nal change  in  form,  rule  and  institution,  fused  con- 
venticle and  cathedral,  and  in  dissolving  separate 
and  narrow  bonds  of  union  has  proved  the  greatest 
bond  of  all,  and  become  like  a  tie  of  blood.  Eng- 
lish piety  is  of  one  stock,  and  through  every  book 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

of  holy  living  where  its  treasures  are  laid  up,  there 
blows  the  breath  of  one  Spirit  Herbert  and 
Bunyan  are  peers  of  a  faith  undivided  in  the  hearts 
of  their  countrymen.  It  does  not  change,  but  is 
the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever.  On  the 
secular  side,  also,  English  nurture  has  been  of 
the  like  simple  strain.  The  instinct  of  adventure, 
English  derring-do,  has  never  failed.  Holinshed 
and  Hakluyt  were  its  chroniclers  of  old;  and  from 
the  Morte  d' Arthur  to  Sidney,  from  the  Red-Cross 
Knight  to  Ivanhoe,  from  Shakespeare's  Henry  to 
Tennyson's  Grenville,  genius  has  not  ceased  to 
stream  upon  it,  a  broad  river  of  light.  The  Word 
of  God  fed  English  piety;  English  daring  was 
fed  upon  the  deeds  of  men.  Hear  Shakespeare's 
Henry:  "Plutarch  always  delights  me  with  a  fresh 
novelty.  To  love  him  is  to  love  me;  for  he  has 
been  long  time  the  instructor  of  my  youth.  My 
good  mother,  to  whom  I  owe  all,  and  who  would 
not  wish,  she  said,  to  see  her  son  an  illustrious 
dunce,  put  this  book  into  my  hands  almost  when 
I  was  a  child  at  the  breast.  It  has  been  like  my 
conscience,  and  has  whispered  in  my  ear  many 
good  suggestions  and  maxims  for  my  conduct  and 
the  government  of  my  affairs."  The  English  Plu- 
tarch is  written  on  the  earth's  face.  Its  battles 
have  named  the  lands  and  seas  of  all  the  world; 
but,  as  was  said  of  English  piety,  from  Harold  to 
Cromwell,  from  the  first  Conqueror  to  Welling- 
ton, from  the  Black  Prince  to  Gordon,  English 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

daring — the  strength  of  the  yeoman,  the  breath 
of  the  noble — is  of  one  stock.  Race  lasts;  those 
who  are  born  in  the  eyrie  find  eagles'  food.  This 
has  planted  iron  resolution  and  all-hazarding 
courage  in  epic-drama  and  battle-ode,  and,  as  in 
the  old  riddle,  feeds  on  what  it  fed.  English  liter- 
ature is  brave,  martial,  and  brings  forth  men-chil- 
dren. It  has  the  clarion  strength  of  empire;  like 
Taillefer  at  Hastings,  Drayton  and  Tennyson  still 
lead  the  charge  at  Agincourt  and  Balaclava.  As 
Shakespeare's  Henry  was  nourished,  so  was  the 
English  spirit  in  all  ages  bred.  This  integrity  of 
English  nurture,  seen  in  these  two  great  modes 
of  life  turned  toward  God  in  the  soul  and  toward 
the  world  in  action,  is  as  plainly  to  be  discerned 
in  details  as  in  these  generalities;  and  to  state 
only  one  other  broad  aspect  of  the  facts  governing 
the  continuity  of  literary  genius  in  the  English,  but 
one  that  goes  to  the  foundations,  the  condition 
that  both  vivifies  and  controls  that  genius  in 
law,  metaphysics,  science,  in  all  political  writing, 
whether  history,  theory,  or  discussion,  as  well  as 
in  the  creative  and  artistic  modes  of  its  develop- 
ment, is  freedom.  The  freedom  of  England,  which 
is  the  parent  of  its  greatness  in  all  ways,  is  as 
old  in  the  race  as  fear  of  God  and  love  of  peril; 
and,  through  its  manifold  and  primary  operation 
in  English  nurture,  is  the  true  continuer  of  its 
literature. 

A  second  grand  trait  of  English  literature  that 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

is  writ  large  on  these  title-pages,  is  its  enormous 
assimilative  power.  So  great  is  this  that  he  who 
would  know  English  must  be  a  scholar  in  all  lit- 
eratures, and  that  with  no  shallow  learning.  The 
old  figure  of  the  torch  handed  down  from  nation 
to  nation,  as  the  type  of  man's  higher  life,  gives 
up  its  full  meaning  only  to  the  student,  and  to  him 
it  may  come  to  seem  that  the  torch  is  all  and  the 
hand  that  bears  it  dust  and  ashes;  often  he  finds 
in  its  light  only  the  color  of  his  own  studies,  and 
names  it  Greek,  Semitic,  Hindu,  and  looks  on 
English,  French  and  Latin  as  mere  carriers  of  the 
flame.  In  so  old  a  symbol  there  must  be  profound 
truth,  and  it  conveys  the  sense  of  antiquity  in  life, 
of  the  deathlessness  of  civilization,  and  something 
also  of  its  superhuman  origin — the  divine  gift  of 
fire  transmitted  from  above;  but  civilization  is 
more  than  an  inheritance,  it  is  a  power;  and  truth 
is  always  more  than  it  was ;  and  wherever  the  torch 
is  lit,  its  light  is  the  burning  of  a  living  race  of 
men.  The  dependence  of  the  present  on  the  past, 
of  a  younger  on  an  older  people,  of  one  nation  on 
another,  is  often  misinterpreted  and  misleads;  life 
cannot  be  given,  but  only  knowledge,  example, 
direction — influence,  but  not  essence;  and  the  im- 
pact of  one  literature  upon  another,  or  of  an  old 
historic  culture  upon  a  new  and  ungrown  people, 
is  more  external  than  is  commonly  represented. 
The  genius  of  a  nation  born  to  greatness  is  irre- 
sistible, it  remains  itself,  it  does  not  become  an- 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

other.  The  Greeks  conquered  Rome,  men  say, 
through  the  mind;  and  Rome  conquered  the  bar- 
barians through  the  mind;  but  in  Gibbon  who 
finds  Greece?  and  the  mind  of  Europe  does  not 
bear  the  ruling  stamp  of  either  Byzantine  or 
Italian  Rome.  In  the  narrowly  temporal  and  per- 
sonal view,  even  under  the  overwhelming  might 
of  Greece,  Virgil  remained,  what  Tennyson  calls 
him,  "Roman  Virgil";  and  in  the  other  capital  in- 
stance of  apparently  all-conquering  literary  power, 
under  the  truth  that  went  forth  from  Judea  into  all 
lands,  Dante  remained  Italian  and  Milton  English. 
Yet  in  these  three  poets,  whose  names  are  syn- 
onyms of  their  countries,  the  assimilated  element 
is  so  great  that  their  minds  might  be  said  to  have 
been  educated  abroad. 

What  is  true  of  Milton  is  true  of  the  young 
English  mind,  from  Chaucer  and  earlier.  In  the 
beginning  English  literature  was  a  part  of  Euro- 
pean literature,  and  held  a  position  in  it  analogous 
to  that  which  the  literature  of  America  occupies  in 
all  English  speech;  it  was  not  so  much  colonial 
as  a  part  of  the  same  world.  The  first  works 
were  European  books  written  on  English  soil; 
Chaucer,  Gower  and  Malory  used  the  matter  of 
Europe,  but  they  retained  the  tang  of  English,  as 
Emerson  keeps  the  tang  of  America.  The  name 
applied  to  Gower,  "the  moral  Gower,"  speaks  him 
English;  and  Arthur,  "the  flower  of  kings," 
remains  forever  Arthur  of  Britain;  and  the  Can- 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

terbury  pilgrimage,  whatever  the  source  of  the 
world-wandering  tales,  gives  the  first  crowded 
scene  of  English  life.  In  Lan gland,  whose  form 
was  mediaeval,  lay  as  in  the  seed  the  religious 
and  social  history  of  a  protestant,  democratic,  and 
labor-honoring  nation.  In  the  next  age,  with 
the  intellectual  sovereignty  of  humanism,  Surrey, 
Sackville,  Lyly,  Sidney  and  Spenser  put  all  the 
new  realms  of  letters  under  tribute,  and  made 
capture  with  a  royal  hand  of  whatever  they  would 
have  for  their  own  of  the  world's  finer  wealth; 
the  dramatists  gathered  again  the  tales  of  all  na- 
tions; and,  period  following  period,  Italy,  Spain 
and  France  in  turn,  and  the  Hebrew,  Greek  and 
Latin  unceasingly,  brought  their  treasures,  light 
or  precious,  to  each  generation  of  authors,  until 
the  last  great  burst  of  the  age  now  closing,  itself 
indebted  most  universally  to  all  the  past  and  all 
the  world.  Yet  each  new  wave  that  washed  em- 
pire to  the  land  retreated,  leaving  the  genius  of 
English  unimpaired  and  richer  only  in  its  own 
strength.  Notwithstanding  the  concettisti,  the 
heroic  drama,  the  Celtic  mist,  which  passed  like 
shadows  from  the  kingdom,  the  instinct  of  the 
authors  held  to  the  massive  sense  of  Latin  and 
the  pure  form  of  Greek  and  Italian,  and  constituted 
these  the  enduring  humane  culture  of  English 
letters  and  their  academic  tradition.  The  perma- 
nence of  this  tradition  in  literary  education  has 
been  of  vast  importance,  and  is  to  the  literary 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

class,  in  so  far  as  they  are  separate  by  training, 
what  the  integrity  of  English  nurture  at  large  has 
been  to  the  nation.  The  poets,  especially,  have 
been  learned  in  this  culture;  and,  so  far  from  be- 
ing self-sprung  from  the  soil,  were  moulded  into 
power  by  every  finer  touch  of  time.  Chaucer, 
Spenser,  Milton,  Gray,  Shelley,  Tennyson  are  the 
capital  names  that  illustrate  the  toil  of  the  scholar, 
and  approve  the  mastery  of  that  classical  culture 
which  has  ever  been  the  most  fruitful  in  the 
choicest  minds.  As  on  the  broad  scale  English 
literature  is  distinguished  by  its  general  assimila- 
tive power,  being  hospitable  to  all  knowledge,  it 
is  most  deeply  and  intimately,  because  continu- 
ously, indebted  to  humane  studies,  in  the  strictest 
sense,  and  has  derived  from  them  not,  as  in  many 
other  cases,  transitory  matter  and  the  fashion  of 
an  hour,  but  the  form  and  discipline  of  art  itself.  In 
assimilating  this  to  English  nature,  literary  genius 
incurred  its  greatest  obligation,  and  in  thereby  dis- 
covering artistic  freedom  found  its  greatest  good. 
This  academic  tradition  has  created  English  cul- 
ture, which  is  perhaps  best  described  as  an  instinc- 
tive standard  of  judgment,  and  is  the  necessary 
complement  to  that  openness  of  mind  that  has 
characterized  English  literature  from  the  first. 
Nor  is  this  last  word  a  paradox,  but  the  simple 
truth,  as  is  plain  from  the  assimilative  power  here 
dwelt  upon.  The  English  genius  is  always  itself; 
no  element  of  greatness  could  inhere  in  it  other- 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

wise;  but,  in  literature,  it  has  had  the  most  open 
mind  of  any  nation. 

A  third  trait  of  high  distinction  in  English  lit- 
erature, of  which  this  list  is  a  reminder,  and  one 
not  unconnected  with  its  continuity  and  receptivity, 
is  its  copiousness.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  mere 
number,  of  voluminousness;  there  is  an  abundance 
of  kinds.  In  the  literature  of  knowledge,  what 
branch  is  unfruitful,  and  in  the  literature  of  power, 
what  fountainhead  is  unstruck  by  the  rod?  Only 
the  Italian  genius  in  its  prime  shows  such  supreme 
equality  in  diversity.  How  many  human  interests 
are  exemplified,  and  how  many  amply  illustrated, 
exhibiting  in  a  true  sense  and  not  by  hyperbole 
myriad-minded  man !  In  the  English  genius  there 
seems  something  correspondent  to  this  marvellous 
efficacy  of  faculty  and  expression ;  it  has  largeness 
of  power.  The  trait  most  commonly  thought  of 
in  connection  with  Aristotle  as  an  individual  — 
"  master  of  those  who  know"  —  and  in  connection 
with  mediaeval  schoolmen  as  a  class,  is  not  less 
characteristic  of  the  English,  though  it  appears 
less.  The  voracity  of  Chaucer  for  all  literary 
knowledge,  which  makes  him  encyclopaedic  of  a 
period,  is  matched  at  the  end  of  these  centuries  by 
Newman,  whose  capaciousness  of  intellect  was  in- 
clusive of  all  he  cared  to  know.  Bacon,  in  saying, 
"  I  take  all  knowledge  to  be  my  province,"  did  not 
so  much  make  a  personal  boast  as  utter  a  national 
motto.  The  great  example  is,  of  course,  Shake- 


INTRODUCTION  xxvii 

speare,  on  whose  universality  later  genius  has 
exhausted  metaphor;  but  for  everything  that  he 
knew  in  little,  English  can  show  a  large  litera- 
ture, and  exceeds  his  comprehensiveness.  The 
fact  is  best  illustrated  by  adverting  to  what  this 
list  spares.  English  is  rich  in  translations,  and 
in  this  sort  of  exchange  the  balance  of  trade  is 
always  in  favor  of  the  importer.  Homer  alone  is 
included  here, —  to  except  the  Bible,  which  has 
been  so  inbred  in  England  as  to  have  become 
an  English  book  to  an  eye  that  clings  to  the  truth 
through  all  appearances;  but  how  rich  in  great 
national  books  is  a  literature  that  can  omit  so 
noble  a  work,  though  translated,  and  one  so  his- 
toric in  English,  as  North's  Plutarch !  In  the 
literature  of  knowledge,  Greek  could  hardly  have 
passed  over  Euclid;  but  Newton's  Principia  is 
here  not  required.  Sir  Thomas  More  is  one  of 
the  noblest  English  names,  and  his  Utopia  is 
a  memorable  book;  but  it  drops  from  the  list. 
Nor  is  it  names  and  books  only  that  disappear; 
but,  as  these  last  instances  suggest,  kinds  of 
literature  go  out  with  them.  Platonism  falls  into 
silence  with  the  pure  tones  of  Vaughan,  in  whom 
light  seems  almost  audible  ;  and  the  mystic  Italian 
fervor  of  the  passional  spirit  fades  with  Crashaw. 
The  books  of  politeness,  though  descended  from 
Castiglione,  depart  with  Chesterfield,  perhaps  from 
some  pettiness  that  had  turned  courtesy  into  eti- 
quette; and  parody  retires  with  Buckingham. 


xxviii  INTRODUCTION 

Latin  literature  was  almost  rewritten  in  English 
during  the  eighteenth  century;  but  the  traces 
of  it  here  are  few.  Of  inadequate  representation, 
how  slight  is  burlesque  in  Butler,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  Chevy  Chase  hardly  compensates  for 
the  absence  of  the  war-ballad  in  Drayton  and 
Campbell.  So  it  is  with  a  hundred  instances. 
In  another  way  of  illustration,  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind  that  each  author  appears  by  only  one 
title;  and  while  it  may  be  true  that  commonly 
each  finer  spirit  stores  up  his  immortality  in 
some  one  book  that  is  a  more  perfect  vessel  of 
time,  yet  fecundity  is  rightly  reckoned  as  a  sign 
of  greatness  and  measure  of  it  in  the  most,  and  the 
production  of  many  books  makes  a  name  bulk 
larger.  Mass  counts,  when  in  addition  to  quality; 
and  the  greatest  have  been  plentiful  writers.  No 
praise  can  make  Gray  seem  more  than  a  remnant 
of  genius,  and  no  qualification  of  the  verdict  can 
deprive  Dryden  and  Jonson  of  largeness.  It  be- 
longs to  genius  to  tire  not  in  creation,  thereby 
imitating  the  excess  of  nature  flowing  from  un- 
husbanded  sources.  Yet  among  these  hundred 
books,  as  in  scientific  classification,  one  example 
must  stand  for  all,  except  when  some  folio,  like  an 
ark,  comes  to  the  rescue  of  a  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher.  This  is  cutting  the  diamond  with  itself. 
But  within  these  limits,  narrowing  circle  within 
circle,  what  a  universe  of  man  remains !  Culture 
after  culture,  epoch  by  epoch,  are  laid  bare  as  in 


INTRODUCTION  xxix 

geologic  strata, — mediaeval  tale  and  history,  hu- 
manistic form,  the  Shakespearian  age,  Puritan, 
Cavalier,  man  scientific,  reforming,  reborn  into  a 
new  natural,  political,  artistic  world,  man  modern ; 
and  in  every  layer  of  imagination  and  learning 
lies,  whole  and  entire,  a  buried  English  age.  It 
is  by  virtue  of  its  copiousness  that  English  litera- 
ture is  so  representative,  both  of  man's  individual 
spirit  in  its  restless  forms  of  apprehension  and 
embodiment,  and  of  its  historic  formulation  in 
English  progress  as  national  power. 

The  realization  of  this  long-lived,  far- gather  ing, 
abounding  English  literature,  in  these  external 
phases,  leaves  untouched  its  original  force.  Whence 
is  its  germinating  power, — what  is  this  genius  of 
the  English?  It  is  the  same  in  literature  as  in 
all  its  other  manifold  manifestations,  for  man  is 
forever  unitary  and  of  one  piece.  Curiosity,  which 
is  the  distinction  of  progressive  peoples,  is  perhaps 
its  initial  and  moving  source.  The  trait  which 
has  sent  the  English  broadcast  over  the  world 
and  mingled  their  history  with  the  annals  of  all 
nations  is  the  same  that  has  so  blended  their  lit- 
erature with  the  history  of  all  tongues.  The  ac- 
quisitive power  which  has  created  the  empire  of  the 
English,  with  dominion  on  dominion,  is  parallel 
with  the  faculty  that  assimilates  past  literatures 
with  the  body  of  their  literary  speech.  But  curi- 
osity is  only  half  the  word.  It  is  singular  that 
the  first  quality  which  occurs  to  the  mind  in  con- 


xxx  INTRODUCTION 

nection  with  the  English  is,  almost  universally 
and  often  exclusively,  their  practicality.  They  are 
really  the  most  romantic  of  all  nations;  romanti- 
cism is  the  other  half  of  their  genius,  and  supple- 
ments that  positive  element  of  knowledge-hunting 
or  truth-seeking  which  is  indicated  by  their  end- 
less curiosity.  Possibly  the  Elizabethan  age  is 
generally  thought  of  as  a  romantic  period,  as  if  it 
were  exceptional;  and  the  romantic  vigor  of  the 
late  Georgian  period,  though  everywhere  acknow- 
ledged, is  primarily  regarded  as  more  strictly  a 
literary  and  not  a  national  characteristic  in  its 
time;  but,  like  all  interesting  history,  English  his- 
tory was  continuously  romantic.  The  days  of  the 
crusaders,  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  and  the  French 
wars  were  of  the  same  strain  in  action  and  char- 
acter, in  adventurous  travel,  in  personal  fate,  in 
contacts,  as  were  the  times  of  Shakespeare's  world 
or  of  the  world  of  Waterloo.  What  a  reinforce- 
ment of  character  in  the  English  has  India  been, 
how  restorative  of  greatness  in  the  blood !  It 
must  be  that  romanticism  should  characterize  a 
great  race,  and,  when  appealing  to  a  positive 
genius,  the  greatest  race;  for  in  it  are  all  the  in- 
vitations of  destiny.  Futurity  broods  and  brings 
forth  in  its  nest.  Romanticism  is  the  lift  of  life 
in  a  people  that  does  not  merely  continue,  but 
grows,  spreads  and  overcomes.  The  sphere  of 
the  word  is  not  to  be  too  narrowly  confined,  as 
only  a  bookish  phrase  of  polite  letters. 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

In  the  world  of  knowledge  the  pursuit  of  truth  is 
romantic.  The  scientific  inquirer  lives  in  a  realm 
of  strangeness  and  in  the  presence  of  the  unknown, 
in  a  place  so  haunted  with  profound  feeling,  so 
electric  with  the  emotions  that  feed  great  minds, 
that  whether  awe  of  the  unsolved  or  of  the  solved 
be  the  stronger  sentiment  he  cannot  tell;  and  the 
appeal  made  to  him — to  the  explorer  in  every 
bodily  peril,  to  the  experimenter  in  the  den  of  un- 
tamed forces,  to  the  thinker  in  his  solitude — is 
often  a  romantic  appeal.  The  moments  of  great 
discoveries  are  romantic  moments,  as  is  seen  in 
Keats' s  sonnet,  lifting  Cortez  and  the  star-gazer  on 
equal  heights  with  the  reader  of  the  Iliad.  The 
epic  of  science  is  a  Columbiad  without  end.  Nor 
is  this  less  true  of  those  branches  of  knowledge 
esteemed  most  dry  and  prosaic.  Locke,  Adam 
Smith,  Darwin  were  all  similarly  placed  with 
Pythagoras,  Aristotle  and  Copernicus;  the  mind, 
society  and  nature,  severally,  were  their  Americas. 
Even  in  this  age  of  the  mechanical  application  of 
forces,  which  by  virtue  of  the  large  part  of  these 
inventions  in  daily  and  world-wide  life  seems 
superficially,  and  is  called,  a  materialistic  age,  ro- 
manticism is  paramount  and  will  finally  be  seen  so. 
Are  not  these  things  in  our  time  what  Drake  and 
Spanish  gold  and  Virginia,  what  Clive  and  the 
Indies,  were  to  other  centuries?  It  is  true  that 
the  element  of  commercial  gain  blends  with  other 
phases  of  our  inventions,  and  seems  a  debase- 


xxxii  INTRODUCTION 

ment,  an  avarice;  but  so  it  was  in  all  ages.  Nor 
are  the  applications  of  scientific  discovery  for  the 
material  ends  of  wealth  other  or  relatively  greater 
now  than  the  applications  of  geographical  dis- 
covery, for  example,  to  the  same  ends  were  in 
Elizabeth's  reign  and  later.  In  the  first  ages 
commercial  gain  was  in  league  with  the  waves 
from  which  rose  the  Odyssey, — a  part  of  that 
early  trading,  coasting  world,  as  it  was  always 
a  part  of  the  artistic  world  of  Athens.  Gain  in 
any  of  its  material  forms,  whether  wealth,  power 
or  rank,  does  not  debase  the  knowledge,  the  cour- 
age of  heart,  the  skill  of  hand  and  brain,  from 
which  it  flows,  for  it  is  their  natural  and  proper 
fruit;  nor  does  it  by  itself  materialize  either  the 
man  or  the  nation,  else  civilization  were  doomed 
from  the  start,  and  the  pursuit  of  truth  would  end 
in  humiliation  and  ignominy.  It  is  rather  the 
attitude  of  mind  toward  this  new  world  of  know- 
ledge and  this  spectacle  of  man  now  imperializing 
through  nature's  forces,  as  formerly  through  dis- 
covery of  the  earth's  lands  and  seas,  that  makes 
the  character  of  our  age.  Romanticism,  being  the 
enveloping  mood  in  whose  atmosphere  the  spirit 
of  man  beholds  life,  and,  as  it  were,  the  light  on 
things,  changes  its  aspect  in  the  process  of  the 
ages  with  the  emergence  of  each  new  world  of 
man's  era;  and  as  it  once  inhered  in  English 
loyalty  and  the  piety  of  Christ's  sepulchre,  and 
in  English  voyaging  over-seas  and  colonizing 


INTRODUCTION  xxxiii 

of  the  lands,  it  now  inheres  in  the  conquest  of 
natural  force  for  the  arts  of  peace.  The  present 
age  exceeds  its  predecessors  in  marvel  in  propor- 
tion as  the  victories  of  the  intellect  are  in  a  world 
of  finer  secrecy  than  any  horizon  veils,  and  build 
an  empire  of  greater  breadth  and  endurance  than 
any  monarch  or  sovereign  people  or  domineer- 
ing race  selfishly  achieves;  its  victories  are  in 
the  unseen  of  force  and  thought,  and  it  brings 
among  men  the  undecaying  empire  of  knowledge, 
as  inexpugnable  as  the  mind  in  man  and  as  inap- 
propriable  as  light  and  air.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
it  is  the  sensual  eye  that  sees  the  sensual  thing, 
but  the  spiritual  eye  spiritually  discerns.  It  is 
romance  that  adds  this  "precious  seeing"  to  the 
eye.  Openness  to  the  call,  capability  of  the  passion, 
and  character,  so  sensitized  and  moulded  in  indi- 
viduals and  made  hereditary  in  a  civilization  and 
a  race  and  idealized  in  conscience,  constitute  the 
motor-genius  of  a  nation,  which  is  its  finding  fac- 
ulty; and  the  appreciation  of  results  and  putting 
them  to  the  use  of  men  make  its  conserving  and 
positive  power.  These  two,  indistinguishably 
married  and  blended,  are  the  English  genius.  A 
positive  genius  following  a  romantic  lead,  a  ro- 
mantic genius  yielding  a  positive  good,  equally 
describe  it  from  opposed  points  of  view;  yet  in 
the  finer  spirits  and  in  the  long  age  the  romantic 
temperament  is  felt  to  be  the  fertilizing  element, 
to  be  character  as  opposed  to  performance.  Great- 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTION 

ness  lies  always  in  the  unaccomplished  deed,  as  in 
the  lonely  anecdote  of  Newton:  "  I  do  not  know 
what  I  may  appear  to  the  world,  but  to  myself  I 
seem  to  have  been  only  like  a  boy  playing  on  the 
seashore,  and  diverting  myself  in  now  and  then 
finding  a  smoother  pebble,  or  a  prettier  shell  than 
ordinary,  whilst  the  great  ocean  of  truth  lay  all 
undiscovered  before  me."  So  Tennyson  with  his 
"wages  of  going  on,"  and  Sir  John  Franklin  and 
Gordon  in  their  lives.  This  spiritual  breath  of  the 
nation  in  all  its  activities  through  centuries  is  the 
breath  of  its  literature,  there  embodied  in  its  finer 
being  and  applied  to  the  highest  uses  for  the  civ- 
ilization and  culture  of  the  nation  by  truth  and  art. 
In  English  literary  history,  and  in  its  men  of 
genius  taken  individually,  the  positive  or  the  ro- 
mantic may  predominate,  each  in  its  own  moment; 
but  the  conspectus  of  the  whole  assigns  to  each  its 
true  levels.  Romanticism  condensed  in  character, 
which  is  the  creation  of  the  highest  poetic  genius, 
the  rarest  work  of  man,  has  its  illustrative  ex- 
ample in  Shakespeare,  the  first  of  all  writers;  he 
followed  it  through  all  its  modes,  and  perhaps  its 
simplest  types  are  Henry  IV  for  action,  Romeo 
for  passion,  and  Hamlet,  which  is  the  romance  of 
thought.  Before  Shakespeare,  Spenser  closed  the 
earliest  age,  which  had  been  shaped  by  a  diffused 
romantic  tradition,  inherited  from  mediaevalism, 
though  in  its  later  career  masked  under  Renais- 
sance forms;  and  since  Shakespeare,  a  similar 


INTRODUCTION  xxxv 

diffused  romantic  prescience,  in  the  region  of  the 
common  life  and  of  revolutionary  causes  most  sig- 
nificantly, brought  in  our  age  that  has  now  passed 
its  first  flower,  but  has  yet  long  to  run.  These 
are  the  three  great  ages  of  English  poetry.  In 
the  interval  between  the  second  and  the  third,  the 
magnificently  accomplished  school  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  gave  to  English  an  age  of  culti- 
vated repose,  in  which  Pope,  its  best  example, 
lived  on  the  incomes  of  the  past,  and,  together 
with  the  younger  and  the  elder  men  he  knew,  ex- 
hibited in  literature  that  conserving  and  positive 
power  which  is  the  economy  of  national  genius; 
but  even  in  that  great  century,  wherever  the  future 
woke,  there  was  a  budding  romanticism,  in  Col- 
lins, Gray,  Walpole,  Thomson,  Cowper,  Blake. 
Such  was  the  history  of  English  poetry,  and  the 
same  general  statement  will  be  found  applicable 
to  English  prose,  though  in  a  lower  tone,  due  to 
the  nature  of  prose.  Taken  in  the  large,  impor- 
tant as  the  positive  element  in  it  is,  the  English 
literary  genius  is,  like  the  race,  temperamentally 
romantic,  to  the  nerve  and  bone. 

This  view  becomes  increasingly  apparent  on  ex- 
amination of  the  service  of  this  literature  to  civili- 
zation and  the  individual  soul  of  man,  which  is  the 
great  function  of  literature,  and  of  its  place  fn  the 
world  of  art. 

"How  shall  the  world  be  served?"  was  Chau- 
cer's question ;  and  it  has  never  been  absent  from 


xxxvi  INTRODUCTION 

any  great  mind  of  the  English  stock.  The  litera- 
ture of  a  nation,  however,  including,  as  here,  books 
of  knowledge,  is  so  nearly  synonymous  with  the 
mind  in  all  its  operations  in  the  national  life,  as 
to  be  coextensive  with  civilization,  and  hardly  sep- 
arable from  it.  Civilization  is  cast  in  the  mould  of 
thought,  and  retains  the  brute  necessity  of  nature 
only  as  mass,  but  not  as  surface ;  it  is  the  flowering 
of  human  forces  in  the  formal  aspect  of  life,  and  of 
these  literature  is  one  mode,  reflecting  in  its  many 
phases  all  the  rest  in  their  manifestations,  and  in- 
wardly feeding  them  in  their  vital  principle.  The 
universality  of  its  touch  on  life  is  indicated  by  the 
fact  that  it  has  made  the  English  a  lettered  people, 
the  alphabet  as  common  as  numbers,  and  the  abil- 
ity to  read  almost  as  wide-spread  in  the  race  as 
the  ability  to  count.  Its  service,  therefore,  cannot 
be  summarized  any  more  than  the  dictionary  of 
its  words.  It  is  possible  to  bring  within  the  com- 
pass of  a  paragraph  only  hints  and  guide-marks 
of  its  work;  and  naturally  these  would  be  gathered 
from  its  most  comprehensive  influences  in  the 
higher  spheres  of  intellect  and  morals,  in  the  world 
of  ideas,  and  in  the  person  of  those  writers  who 
were  either  the  founders  or  restorers  of  knowledge. 
Such  a  cardinal  service  was  the  Baconian  method, 
to  take  a  single  great  instance,  which  may  almost 
be  said  to  have  reversed  the  logical  habit  of  the 
mind  of  Europe,  and  to  have  summoned  nature 
to  a  new  bar.  It  is  enough  to  name  this.  Of 


INTRODUCTION  xxxvii 

books  powerful  in  intellectual  results,  Locke's 
Essay  is,  perhaps,  thought  of  as  metaphysical 
and  remote,  yet  it  was  of  immeasurable  influence 
at  home  and  abroad,  so  subtly  penetrating  as  to 
resemble  in  scale  and  intimacy  the  silent  forces  of 
nature.  It  was  great  as  a  representative  of  the 
spirit  of  rationalism,  which  it  supported  and  spread 
with  incalculable  results  on  the  temper  of  educated 
Europe ;  and  great  also  as  a  product  and  embodi- 
ment of  that  cold,  intellectual  habit,  distinctive  of 
a  certain  kind  of  English  mind,  and  usually  re- 
garded as  radical  in  the  race.  It  was  great  by  the 
variety  as  well  as  the  range  of  its  influence,  and 
was  felt  in  all  regions  of  abstract  thought  and  those 
practical  arts,  education,  government  and  the  like, 
then  most  affected  by  such  thought;  it  permanently 
modified  the  cast  of  men's  minds.  In  opposition 
to  it  new  philosophical  movements  found  their 
mainspring.  A  similar  honor  belongs  to  Adam 
Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations  in  another  century. 
It  is  customary  to  eulogize  the  pioneer,  and  to 
credit  the  first  openers  of  Californias  with  the 
wealth  of  all  the  mines  worked  by  later  comers; 
and,  in  this  sense,  the  words  of  Buckle,  that  have 
been  placed  opposite  the  title-page,  are,  perhaps, 
to  be  taken:  "  Adam  Smith  contributed  more,  by 
the  publication  of  this  single  work,  towards  the 
happiness  of  men  than  has  been  effected  by  the 
united  abilities  of  all  the  statesmen  and  legislators 
of  whom  history  has  preserved  an  authentic  ac- 


xxxviii  INTRODUCTION 

count."  But  the  excess  of  the  statement  is  a  proof 
of  the  largeness  of  the  truth  it  contains,  and  like- 
minded  praise  is  not  from  Buckle  alone,  but  may 
be  found  in  half  a  score  of  thoughtful  and  tem- 
perate authors.  In  the  last  age,  Darwin,  by  his 
Origin  of  Species,  most  arrested  the  attention  of 
the  scientific  mind,  and  stimulated  the  highly  edu- 
cated world  with  surprise.  He  was  classed  with 
Copernicus,  as  having  brought  man's  pretension 
to  be  the  first  of  created  things,  and  their  lord 
from  the  beginning,  under  the  destroying  criti- 
cism of  scientific  time  and  its  order,  in  the  same 
way  that  Copernicus  brought  the  pretension  of  the 
earth  to  be  the  centre  of  the  universe  under  a  like 
criticism  of  scientific  space  and  its  order;  and  in 
these  proud  statements  there  is  some  measure  of 
truth.  The  ideas  of  Darwin  compel  a  readjust- 
ment of  man's  thoughts  with  regard  to  his  tem- 
poral and  natural  relation  to  the  universe  in  which 
he  finds  himself;  and  the  vast  generalities  of  all 
evolutionary  thought  received  from  Darwin  im- 
mense stimulus,  its  method  greater  scope,  and  its 
results  a  firmer  hold  on  the  general  mind,  with  an 
influence  still  unfathomable  upon  man's  highest 
beliefs  with  regard  to  his  origin  and  destiny. 
There  are  epochs  in  the  intellectual  history  of  the 
race  as  marked  as  those  of  the  globe;  and  such 
works  as  these,  in  the  literature  of  knowledge, 
show  the  times  of  the  opening  of  the  seals. 

In  addition  to  the  service  so  done  in  the  ad- 


INTRODUCTION  xxxix 

vancement  of  civilization  by  the  discovery  of  new 
truth,  as  great  benefaction  is  accomplished  by  the 
continual  agitation  and  exercise  of  men's  minds 
in  the  ideas  that  are  not  new  but  the  ever-liv- 
ing inheritance  from  the  past,  whose  permanence 
through  all  epochs  shows  their  deep  grounding  in 
the  race  they  nourish.  In  English  such  ideas  are, 
especially,  in  the  view  of  the  whole  world,  ideas 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty  in  the  widest  sense 
and  particularly  as  worked  out  in  legal  and  politi- 
cal history.  The  common  law  of  England  in 
Blackstone  is  a  mighty  legacy.  On  the  large 
public  scale,  and  as  involved  in  the  constitutional 
making  of  a  great  nation,  the  Federalist  is  a 
document  invaluable  as  setting  forth  essentials  of 
free  government  under  a  particular  application; 
and  for  comment  on  social  liberty,  Burke,  on  the 
conservative,  and  Paine,  on  the  radical  side,  ex- 
hibit the  scope,  the  weight  and  fire  of  English 
thought.  Of  still  greater  significance,  for  the 
mass  and  variety  of  teaching,  is  that  commentary 
on  man's  freedom  which  is  contained  in  the  oper- 
ation of  liberty  and  its  increase  as  presented  in 
the  long  story  of  England's  greatness  recorded 
in  the  works  of  her  historians  from  Holinshed 
to  Macaulay,  with  what  the  last  prolific  genera- 
tion has  added.  They  are  exceeded  in  the  dig- 
nity of  their  labors  by  Gibbon,  whose  work  on 
Rome,  which  Mommsen  called  the  greatest  of  all 
histories  and  is  often  likened  to  a  mighty  bridge 


xl  INTRODUCTION 

spanning  the  gulf  between  the  ancient  and  the 
modern  world,  was  a  contribution  to  European 
learning;  but  the  historians  of  English  liberty 
have  more  profitably  served  mankind.  At  yet 
another  remove,  the  ideas  of  liberty — and  the  mind 
acquainted  with  English  books  is  dazzled  by  the 
vast  comprehensiveness  of  such  a  phrase — are 
again  poured  through  the  nation's  life-blood  by 
all  her  poets,  and  well-nigh  all  her  writers  in  prose, 
in  one  or  another  mode  of  the  Promethean  fire. 
These  ideas  are  never  silent,  never  quiescent; 
they  work  in  the  substance,  they  shape  the  form 
and  feature,  of  English  thought;  they  are  the  ne- 
cessary element  of  its  being;  they  constitute  the 
race  of  freemen,  and  are  known  in  every  language 
as  English  ideas.  They  give  sublimity  to  the 
figure  of  Milton;  they  are  the  feeding  flame  of 
Shelley's  mind;  they  alone  lift  Tennyson  to  an 
eagle-flight  of  song.  In  the  unceasing  celebra- 
tion of  ideal  liberty,  and  its  practical  life  in  Eng- 
lish character  and  events,  the  literature  of  England 
has,  perhaps,  done  a  greater  service  than  in  the 
positive  advancement  of  knowledge,  for  it  is  more 
fundamental  in  the  national  life.  Touching  the 
subject  almost  at  random,  such  are  a  few  of  the 
points  of  contact  between  English  books  and 
the  civilization  of  men. 

It  is  still  more  difficult  to  state  briefly  the  action 
of  literature  on  the  individual  for  what  is  more 
distinctly  his  private  gain,  in  the  enlargement  of 


INTRODUCTION  xli 

his  life,  the  direction  of  his  thoughts,  and  bringing 
him  into  harmony  with  the  world.  As,  in  regard 
to  civilization,  the  emphasis  lay  rather  on  the  liter- 
ature of  knowledge,  here  it  lies  on  the  literature 
of  power, — on  imaginative  and  reflective  works. 
Its  initial  office  is  educative;  it  feeds  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  powers  of  sympathy,  and  trains  not 
only  the  affections  but  all  feeling;  and  in  these 
fields  it  is  the  only  instrument  of  education  outside 
of  real  experience.  It  is  this  that  gives  it  such 
primacy  as  to  make  acquaintance  with  humane 
letters  almost  synonymous  with  culture.  No  ac- 
tual world  is  large  enough  for  a  man  to  live  in; 
at  the  lowest,  there  is  some  tradition  of  the  past, 
some  expectation  of  the  future;  and,  though  train- 
ing in  the  senses  is  an  important  part  of  early 
life,  yet  the  greater  part  of  education  consists  in 
putting  the  young  in  possession  of  an  unseen 
world.  The  biograph  is  a  marvellous  toy  of  the 
time,  but  literature  in  its  lower  forms  of  informa- 
tion, of  history,  travel  and  description,  has  been  a 
biograph  for  the  mind's  eye  from  the  beginning; 
and  in  its  higher  forms  of  art  it  performs  a  greater 
service  by  bringing  into  mental  vision  what  it  is 
above  the  power  of  nature  to  produce.  To  ex- 
pand the  mind  to  the  compass  of  space  and  time, 
and  to  people  these  with  the  thoughts  of  mankind, 
to  revive  the  past  and  penetrate  the  reality  of  the 
present,  is  the  joint  work  of  all  literature;  and  as 
a  preparation  for  individual  life,  in  unfolding  the 


xlii  INTRODUCTION 

faculties  and  the  feelings,  humane  letters  achieve 
their  most  essential  task.  Literature  furnishes  the 
gymnasia  for  all  youth,  in  that  part  of  their  na- 
ture in  which  the  highest  power  of  humanity  lies. 
But  this  is  only,  as  was  said,  its  initial  office. 
Throughout  life  it  acts  in  the  same  way  on  old 
and  young  alike.  The  dependence  of  all  men  on 
thought,  and  of  thought  on  speech,  is  a  profound 
matter,  though  as  little  considered  as  gravitation 
that  keeps  the  world  entire;  and  the  speech  on 
which  such  a  strain  of  life  lies  is  the  speech 
of  books.  How  has  Longfellow  consoled  middle 
life  in  its  human  trials,  how  has  Carlyle  roused 
manhood,  and  Emerson  illumined  life  for  his 
readers  at  every  stage!  Scott  is  a  benefactor  of 
millions  by  virtue  of  the  entertainment  he  has 
given  to  English  homes  and  the  lonely  hours  of 
his  fellow-men,  now  for  three  generations,  to  an 
extent  hardly  measurable  in  thought;  and  so  in 
hardly  a  less  degree  is  Dickens,  and,  though  di- 
minishing in  inclusive  power,  are  Thackeray,  Aus- 
ten, Bronte,  Cooper,  Hawthorne,  George  Eliot,  to 
name  only  novelists.  Each  century  has  had  its 
own  story-telling  from  Chaucer  down,  though 
masked  in  the  Elizabethan  period  as  drama,  and 
in  each  much  hearty  and  refined  pleasure  has 
been  afforded  by  the  spectacle  of  life  in  books; 
but  in  the  last  age  the  benefit  so  conferred  is  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  greater  blessings  of  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  singular  that  humor,  so  prime  and 


INTRODUCTION  xliii 

constant  a  factor  in  English,  should  have  so  few 
books  altogether  its  own,  and  these  not  of  the 
greater  class;  but  the  spirit  which  yields  burlesque 
in  Butler  and  Irving,  and  comedy  in  Massinger, 
Congreve  and  Sheridan,  pervades  the  body  of 
English  literature  and  characterizes  it  among  na- 
tional literatures.  The  highest  mind  is  incomplete 
without  humor,  for  a  perfect  idealism  includes 
laughter  at  the  real;  and  it  is  natural,  for,  the 
principle  of  humor  being  incongruity  to  the  in- 
tellect, it  is  properly  most  keen  in  those  in  whom 
the  idea  of  order,  which  is  the  mother-idea  of  the 
intellect,  is  most  omnipresent  and  controlling; 
but  as  humor  is  thus  auxiliary  in  character,  it  is 
found  to  be  subordinate  also  in  English  literature 
as  a  whole.  The  constancy  of  its  presence,  how- 
ever, is  a  sign  of  the  general  health  of  the  Eng- 
lish genius,  which  has  turned  to  morbidity  far 
less  than  that  of  other  nations  ancient  or  mod- 
ern. It  is  a  cognate  fact,  here,  that  great  books 
are  never  frivolous;  they  leave  the  reader  wiser 
and  better,  as  well  through  laughter  as  through 
tears,  or  they  sustain  imaginative  and  sympathetic 
power  already  acquired.  They  open  the  world 
of  humanity  to  the  heart,  and  they  open  the 
heart  to  itself.  In  another  region,  not  primarily 
of  entertainment,  the  value  of  literature  lies  in 
its  function  to  inspire.  In  individual  life,  each 
finer  spirit  of  the  past  touches  with  an  electric 
force  those  of  his  own  kindred  as  they  are  born 


xliv  INTRODUCTION 

into  the  world  of  letters,  and  often  for  life.  The 
later  poets  have  most  personal  power  in  this  way. 
Burns,  Wordsworth,  Byron,  Shelley  have  been 
the  inspiration  of  lives,  like  Carlyle  and  Emerson 
in  prose.  The  most  intense  example  of  national 
inspiration  in  a  book  is  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin;  but 
in  quieter  ways  Scotland  feels  the  pulse  of  Burns, 
and  England  the  many-mingled  throbbing  of  the 
poets  in  her  blood. 

On  the  large  scale,  in  the  impact  of  literature 
on  the  individual  soul  and  through  that  on  the  na- 
tional belief,  aspiration  and  resolve,  the  great  sphere 
of  influence  lies  necessarily  in  the  religious  life, 
because  that  is  universal  and  constant  from  birth 
to  death  and  spreads  among  the  secret  springs 
and  sources  of  man's  essential  nature.  It  is  a 
commonplace,  it  has  sometimes  been  made  a  re- 
proach, that  English  literature  is  predominantly 
moral  and  religious,  and  the  fact  is  plainly  so. 
The  strain  that  began  with  Piers  Plowman  flour- 
ished more  mightily  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress. 
The  psalm-note  that  was  a  tone  of  character  in 
Surrey,  Wyatt  and  Sidney  gave  perfect  song  in 
Milton,  both  poet  and  man.  From  Butler  to 
Newman  the  intellect,  applied  to  religion,  did  not 
fail  in  strenuous  power.  Taylor's  Holy  Living 
is  a  saint's  book.  If  religious  poets,  of  one  pure 
strain  of  Sabbath  melody,  have  been  rare,  yet 
Herbert,  Vaughan,  Cowper,  Keble,  Whittier  are 
to  the  memory  Christian  names,  with  the  humility 


INTRODUCTION  xlv 

and  breathing  peace  of  sacred  song.  The  portion 
of  English  literature  expressly  religious  is  en- 
larged by  the  works  of  authors,  both  in  prose  and 
verse,  in  which  religion  was  an  occasional  theme 
and  often  greatly  dealt  with;  and  the  religious 
and  moral  influence  of  the  body  of  literature  as  a 
whole  on  the  English  race  is  immensely  increased 
by  those  writers  into  whom  the  Christian  spirit 
entered  as  a  master-light  of  reason  and  imagina- 
tion, such  as  Spenser  in  the  Faerie  Queene  and 
Wordsworth  in  his  works  generally,  or  Gray  in 
the  solemn  thought  of  the  Elegy.  To  particu- 
larize is  an  endless  task;  for  the  sense  of  duty 
toward  man  and  God  is  of  the  bone  and  flesh  of 
English  books  in  every  age,  being  planted  in 
the  English  nature.  This  vast  mass  of  experience 
and  counsel,  of  praise  and  prayer,  of  insight  and 
leading,  variously  responding  to  every  phase  of 
the  religious  consciousness  of  the  historic  people, 
has  been,  like  the  general  harvest,  the  daily  food 
of  the  nation  in  its  spiritual  life.  If  Shakespeare 
is  the  greatest  of  our  writers,  the  English  Bible  is 
the  greatest  of  our  books;  and  the  whole  matter 
is  summarized  in  saying  that  the  Bible,  together 
with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  is  the  most 
widely  distributed,  the  most  universally  influen- 
tial, the  most  generally  valued  and  best-read  book 
of  the  English  people,  and  this  has  been  true  since 
the  diffusion  of  printing.  It  may  seem  only  the 
felicity  of  time  that  the  English  language  best 


xlvi  INTRODUCTION 

adorns  its  best  book;  but  it  is  by  a  higher  bless- 
ing that  English  character  centres  in  this  Book, 
that  English  thinkers  see  by  it,  that  English  poets 
feel  by  it,  that  the  English  people  live  by  it;  for 
it  has  passed  into  the  blood  of  all  English  veins. 

It  is  natural  to  inquire,  after  dwelling  so  much 
on  the  practical  power  of  English  literature  in 
society  and  life,  what  is  its  value  in  the  world 
of  art,  in  that  sphere  where  questions  of  perfec- 
tion in  the  form,  of  permanence  in  the  matter, 
and  the  like,  arise.  If  the  standards  of  an  aca- 
demic classicism  be  applied,  English  literature  will 
fall  below  both  Latin  and  Greek,  and  the  Italian 
and  French,  and  take  a  lower  place  with  German 
and  Spanish,  to  which  it  is  most  akin.  But  such 
standards  are  pseudo-classical  at  best,  and  under 
modern  criticism  find  less  ground  in  the  ancients. 
The  genius  of  the  English  is  romantic,  and  origi- 
nated romantic  forms  proper  to  itself,  and  by  these 
it  should  be  judged.  The  time  is,  perhaps,  not 
wholly  gone  by  when  the  formlessness  of  Shake- 
speare may  be  found  spoken  of  as  a  matter  of 
course,  as  the  formlessness  of  Shelley  is  still  gen- 
erally alleged;  but  if  neither  of  these  has  form  in 
the  pseudo-classic,  the  Italian  and  French,  sense 
of  convention,  decorum  and  limit,  they  were  cre- 
ators of  that  romantic  form  in  which  English,  to- 
gether with  Spanish,  marks  the  furthest  original 
modern  advance.  The  subject  is  too  large,  and 
too  much  a  matter  of  detail,  for  this  place;  but 


INTRODUCTION  xlvii 

it  is  the  less  necessary  to  expand  it,  for  it  is  as 
superfluous  to  establish  the  right  of  Shakespeare 
in  the  realm  of  the  most  perfect  art  as  to  exam- 
ine the  title-deeds  of  Alexander's  conquests.  He 
condensed  romanticism  in  character,  as  was  said 
above;  and  in  the  power  with  which  he  did  this, 
in  the  wisdom,  beauty  and  splendor  of  his  achieve- 
ment, excelled  all  others,  both  for  substance  and 
art.  The  instinct  of  fame  may  be  safely  followed 
in  assigning  a  like  primacy  to  Milton.  The  mo- 
ment which  Milton  occupied,  in  the  climax  of  a 
literary  movement,  is,  perhaps,  not  commonly  ob- 
served with  accuracy.  The  drama  developed  out 
of  allegorical  and  abstract,  and  through  histori- 
cal, into  entirely  human  and  ideal  forms;  and  in 
Shakespeare  this  process  is  completed.  The  same 
movement,  on  the  religious  as  opposed  to  the  sec- 
ular line,  took  place  more  slowly.  Spenser,  like 
Sackville,  works  by  impersonation  of  moral  quali- 
ties, viewed  abstractly;  the  Fletchers,  who  carried 
on  his  tradition,  employ  the  same  method,  which 
gives  a  remote  and  often  fantastic  character  to 
their  work;  nor  was  moral  and  religious  poetic  nar- 
rative truly  humanized,  and  given  ideal  power  in 
character  and  event,  until  Milton  carried  it  to  its 
proper  artistic  culmination  in  Paradise  Lost.  Mil- 
ton stands  to  the  evolution  of  this  branch  of  poetic 
literature,  springing  from  the  miracle-plays,  pre- 
cisely as  Shakespeare  does  to  the  branch  of  ideal 
drama;  and  thus,  although  he  fell  outside  of  the 


xlviii  INTRODUCTION 

great  age,  and  was  sixty  years  later  than  Shake- 
speare in  completing  the  work,  the  singularity  of 
his  literary  greatness,  his  loneliness  as  a  lofty  ge- 
nius in  his  time,  becomes  somewhat  less  inexplica- 
ble. The  Paradise  Lost  occupies  this  moment  of 
climax,  to  repeat  the  phrase,  in  literary  history,  and, 
like  nearly  all  works  in  such  circumstances,  it  has  a 
greatness  all  its  own.  But,  beyond  that,  it  lies  in 
a  region  of  art  where  no  other  English  work  com- 
panions it,  as  an  epic  of  the  romantic  spirit  such  as 
Italy  most  boasts  of,  but  superior  in  breadth,  in 
ethical  power,  in  human  interest,  to  Ariosto  or 
Tasso,  and  comparing  with  them  as  Pindar  with 
the  Alexandrians;  it  realized  Hell  and  Eden,  and 
the  world  of  heavenly  war  and  the  temptation,  to  the 
vision  of  men,  with  tremendous  imaginative  power, 
stamping  them  into  the  race-mind  as  permanent 
imagery;  and  the  literary  kinship  which  the  work- 
manship bears  to  what  is  most  excellent  and  shin- 
ing in  the  great  works  of  Greece,  Rome  and  Italy, 
as  well  as  to  Hebraic  grandeur,  helps  to  place  the 
poem  in  that  remoter  air  which  is  an  association 
of  the  mind  with  all  art.  No  other  English  poem 
has  a  similar  brilliancy,  aloofness  and  perfection, 
as  of  something  existing  in  another  element,  except 
the  Adonais.  In  it  personal  lyricism  achieved  the 
most  impersonal  of  elegies,  and  mingled  the  fair- 
est dreams  of  changeful  imaginative  grief  with  the 
soul's  intellectual  passion  for  immortality  full- 
voiced.  It  is  detached  from  time  and  place;  the 


INTRODUCTION  xlix 

hunger  of  the  soul  for  eternity,  which  is  its  sub- 
stance, human  nature  can  never  lay  off;  its  liter- 
ary kinship  is  with  what  is  most  lovely  in  the 
idyllic  melody  of  the  antique;  and,  owing  to  its 
small  scale  and  the  simple  unity  of  its  mood,  it 
gives  forth  the  perpetual  charm  of  literary  form  in 
great  purity.  These  two  poems  stand  alone  with 
Shakespeare's  plays,  and  are  for  epic  and  lyric 
what  his  work  is  for  drama,  the  height  of  English 
performance  in  the  cultivation  of  romance.  Other 
poets  must  be  judged  to  have  attained  excellence 
in  romantic  art  in  proportion  as  they  reveal  the 
qualities  of  Shakespeare,  Milton  and  Shelley;  for 
these  three  are  the  masters  of  romantic  form,  which, 
being  the  spirit  of  life  proceeding  from  within 
outward,  is  the  vital  structure  of  English  poetic 
genius.  This  internal  power  is  also  a  principle 
of  classic  art  in  its  antique  examples;  but  academic 
criticism  developed  from  them  a  hardened  formal- 
ism to  which  romantic  art  is  related  as  the  spirit 
of  life  to  the  death-mask  of  the  past.  Such  pal- 
lor has  from  time  to  time  crossed  the  features  of 
English  letters  in  a  man  or  an  age,  and  has 
brought  a  marble  dignity,  as  to  Landor,  or  the 
shadow  of  an  Augustan  elegance,  as  in  the  era  of 
Pope;  but  it  has  faded  and  passed  away  under 
the  flush  of  new  life.  Even  in  prose,  in  which 
so-called  classic  qualities  are  still  sought  by  aca- 
demic taste,  the  genius  of  English  has  shown  a 
native  obstinacy.  The  novel  is  so  Protean  in 


1  INTRODUCTION 

form  as  to  seem  amorphous,  but  essentially  repeats 
the  drama,  and  submits  in  its  masters  to  Shake- 
spearian parallelism;  in  substance  and  manner  it 
has  been  overwhelmingly  of  a  romantic  cast;  and 
in  the  other  forms  of  prose,  style,  though  of  all 
varieties,  has,  perhaps,  proved  most  preservative 
when  highly  colored,  individualized,  and  touched 
with  imaginative  greatness,  as  in  Browne,  Taylor, 
Milton,  Bunyan,  Burke,  Carlyle,  Macaulay;  but 
the  inferiority  of  their  matter,  it  should  be  ob- 
served, affects  the  endurance  of  the  eighteenth- 
century  prose  masters — Steele,  Addison,  Swift  and 
Johnson,  to  name  the  foremost.  Commonly,  it 
must  be  allowed,  English,  both  prose  and  poetry, 
notwithstanding  its  triumphs,  is  valued  for  sub- 
stance and  not  for  form,  whether  this  be  due  to  a 
natural  incapacity,  or  to  a  retardation  in  devel- 
opment which  may  hereafter  be  overcome,  or  to 
the  fact  that  the  richness  of  the  substance  renders 
the  fineness  of  the  form  less  eminent. 

In  conclusion,  the  thought  rises  of  itself,  will 
this  continuity,  assimilative  power,  and  copious- 
ness, this  original  genius,  this  serviceableness  to 
civilization  and  the  private  life,  this  supreme  ro- 
mantic art,  be  maintained,  now  that  the  English 
and  their  speech  are  spread  through  the  world,  or 
is  the  history  of  the  intellectual  expansion  of  Ath- 
ens and  Rome,  the  moral  expansion  of  Jerusalem, 
to  be  repeated  ?  The  saying  of  Shelley,  "  The  mind 
in  creation  is  a  fading  coal,"  seems  to  be  true  of 


INTRODUCTION  li 

nations.  Great  literatures,  or  periods  in  them, 
have  usually  marked  the  culmination  of  national 
power;  and  if  they  "look  before  and  after,"  as 
Virgil  in  the  ^neid,  they  gather  their  wisdom,  as 
he  too  did,  by  a  gaze  reverted  to  the  past.  The 
paradox  of  progress,  in  that  the  laudator  temporis 
acti  is  always  found  among  the  best  and  noblest 
of  the  elders,  while  yet  the  whole  world  of  man 
ever  moves  on  to  greater  knowledge,  power  and 
good,  continues  like  the  riddle  of  the  Sphinx; 
but  time  seems  unalterably  in  favor  of  mankind 
through  all  dark  prophecies.  The  mystery  of 
genius  is  unsolved;  and  the  Messianic  hope  that 
a  child  may  be  born  unto  the  people  always  re- 
mains; but  the  greatness  of  a  nation  dies  only 
with  that  genius  which  is  not  a  form  of  human 
greatness  in  individuals,  but  is  shared  by  all  of 
the  blood,  and  constitutes  them  fellow-country- 
men. The  genius  of  the  English  shows  no  sign 
of  decay;  age  has  followed  age,  each  more  glori- 
ously, and  whether  the  period  that  is  now  closing 
be  really  an  end  or  only  the  initial  movement  of  a 
vaster  arc  of  time,  corresponding  to  the  greater 
English  destiny,  world-wide,  world-peopling, 
world-freeing,  the  arc  of  the  movement  of  democ- 
racy through  the  next  ages, — is  immaterial;  so 
long  as  the  genius  of  the  people,  its  piety  and  dar- 
ing, its  finding  faculty  for  truth,  its  creative  shaping 
in  art,  be  still  integral  and  vital,  so  long  as  its 
spiritual  passion  be  fed  from  those  human  and 


Hi  INTRODUCTION 

divine  ideas  whose  abundance  is  not  lessened,  and 
on  those  heroic  tasks  which  a  world  still  half 
discovered  and  partially  subdued  opens  through 
the  whole  range  of  action  and  of  the  intellectual 
and  moral  life, — so  long  as  these  things  endure, 
English  speech  must  still  be  fruitful  in  great  ages 
of  literature,  as  in  the  past  these  have  been  its 
fountainheads.  But  if  no  more  were  to  be 
written  on  the  page  of  English,  yet  what  is  writ- 
ten there,  contained  and  handed  down  in  famous 
books  and  made  the  spiritual  food  of  the  vast  mul- 
titude whose  children's  children  shall  use  and  read 
the  English  tongue  through  coming  centuries 
under  every  sky,  will  constitute  a  moral  dominion 
to  which  Virgil's  line  may  proudly  apply — 

His  ego  nee  metas  rerum  nee  tempora  pono : 
Imperium  sine  fine  dedi. 


<£>ne  feunlivct)  Boofes 
jfamoujs  in  digits!)  literature 


Dan  Chaucer,  the  first  warbler,  whose  sweet  breath 
Preluded  those  melodious  bursts  that  fill 

The  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth 
With  sounds  that  echo  still. 

TENNYSON 


of  mac cfic  fatty  gab  y  tgft 

nty  fobtty  cucrp  ft^ne  tn  fuc^c  Ptooutr 


tn  m^rg         an 
orO|pt9  anty  ^  g^n 
in  fy  wtp  ^ff  ^10  cours  g  wwne 

fbufic*  tita6c  mctbbie 
t)  at  ngg$t  tJSi^  cpptj  ge 
^o  p!t'6i>    ^rn)  natutx  m  f)tr  coragc 
C^t)  K»igp»tg  fbf  6  &  go 
Qtnt^  f»Pmer«  <D  fec§e  (Zmtmge 
ttofcrue  ^tbtBte  eon^e  m  (ont>:^  fi 
Qtn6?  (p^a'aflPg  fro  cu^tj  f$m«  cn^e 
Of  ^ngcfbnb  60  CatmfetSutj  %  tB 
^fp  efifftif  matd't  fbtfe  f«6 


fit  m  <&»(  fcfoi)  on 
n  ^uf  6fficr6  aftc  fafar* 
te  On  mpptfgcemage 
^o  CauntirBucg  tBtf$  fcuoitf  cowtge 

m 


& 
<Df  font«j  ^ffi  fe  aucnftite 


Cfe(  foSBart)  CauntwButj)  tBofett) 
^  c^antfet^  anty  f^  Pa6ft« 
^tEerc  (fe>  efib?  aftc 

T*^ 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  7x10  inches 


O  moral  Gower 

CHAUCER 


£ie  Cbc6  io  tnei6uCc^  confef  * 
(to  amonfte  /  rtjat  »«s  to  faya 
igfcgfffr  tifc  cotifef&ot)  of 
ieEbttct  maaj»?  ana?  cowpgfri?  6p 
Golba  fqu^c  Cocne  tn  IbaBpe 
trj  tQ?  tgmp  of  6j?ng  ac^ito  %f«cond 
ibQic^  6ood  tatotf)  ^oib  0»  Ibae  ronfsf 
fpty  CP  45enpuc  pttcft  of  fenuo  " 
H)c  muf«e  of  Cbue  »n  §10  feiu  " 
And  f<uo^  o?0e£g  fgttnw  /  00  ft) 
fh^o?  foofi  a£  afcng?  a^pjaeretQ  /ano  6^ 
caufe  tfcrc  6ecn  compcpfcD;  t6«th)  o^ '/ 


cucrp  mawte/3  auc  ort«pnaO  a 
Qece  fofoibpng2  of  a?  fuefc 

faGfoe  IbQere  and;  h)  Ib9a( 
6? « f  (^|>  fianec  n;  a*  fr  w  af e?x 


</  $pft 


tt  »n  t«  sJ  £***  °f 

feoonty  Began  to  mafie  t^pe  6bo£  ot; 

^^tecft^  tb  9atx{>  of  Eanav/te  tjenn* 

c:ft?  of  oerBg  fofto  f  /    tj 

Of  rtjeftafe  of  tftc  wgdmee  firmpomffp 

fte  (0502  ?««  fofto  ^  |  ttj 

Of  tQ«fK»*  of  iff)*  cfcrgge  t^c  fgm«  of 

tofett  ggffoncnfte  nowgncj  ^ 

cfrmcnfe  f^rnnc  onfipopj  fofto 

Of  tt)c  cftafe  of  t^c  amjn 

fcfio 

Jt)o\b  ( 

Eu^oDonofoc  falbt  h)  ftie 

on  frc  d  of  tfo€o»  /a  6«f<c 

fefp  of  9cafic  /  foggee  cf 

feet  Raffc  pwi)  $  ftiCft  «tt^c  fbfto 

Of  Kjentapatoaon  of  %  oreinc  /ano 


6608 


ie  to  fa? 


7(nt> 

6006  eonft  ffio  amanttc 
tQcf^tpfec  of  ede  fbuez  / 
froft  f^afi  faelbc  not 
^umagn  /But  oC/b  of  attc 
Ecef^o  na<ucnCTy  fbfto 
©olb  aipp^>  fmofe 
Ibtt^  ft  fprp  awibc  on?»  Ibouncso  ^nj 
fo  tfjaf  ftnuc  wmmpfc^  Co 
MS  figt  pneft  for  fo  fax  rjje 
onfbfto 

Jt)otb  <S«t?ue  fegn#  fettf  / 
fine?  png  fofbte  ^pm  pwpt§ 
oonftffot  fe  apofc  9gm  h)  fye  «nf|lJ 
on  fbfto  f/    ei 

5.*  anftf^o))  of«9«  amanf  offltoa 
of  h>pt2noj»eftr<  of  $iefgu«lb^ftf 
fbfto  «|  gl 

J£)olb  ot^wn  fbv  fcft^nj  ^pon  Oeatn? 
tbas  forne^hj  (b  an^idtrfofto  (1 

s  tftc 

6u(  one  ej«  /g 
fbfto 


fiuncfe 


^  jo  on?  cr? 


te 

Jtjolb  tiBpp 
ttucs 
fbfto 
fau 
fgnn«e/o 


fbfio     |  /  ^ 
efmp?0  fco  rt)«  matmttj 
of 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  8.68x12.75  inches 


Flos  regum  Arthurus 

JOHN  OF  EXETER 


jffrt  «}aOfato  aecompfgfffro?  ano  fengfjfeo  .c_. 
flgflorgee  atflbcS  of  wnfompCacgot)  ae  of  otfjc*  ^(fc 
V€^  ,rga?  ano?  tbotfofj  acfce  of  gtefe  conqiwcout«  $  pr^t 
cte/Ttn^  affo  oet^i|  6bo0eeof  enfatimpfco  an^oodtpne^ 
<man$  noBO  an^  &guere  gen^Cmci)  of  $&o  topamc  of  6ng 
fbno?  cama)  ano?  c»maunC8C>2  memangano?  oft^mee/tbOetfov 
J$at  j  6ouc  no(  Co  mate  <z  cnprpnfc  t^c  no6&  Qgtforg*  of 
gcraC  /ano?  of  $e  moof(;  oenome^  ct^ei)  6^ng? 

,„„<,  J»  oug^  mooft  tb  &  ocmcmBteov  cmonge 
met)  tbfbw  aC  ortjei  ttpfecij  figngee/ Jot  i<  id  " 

'"isO?  /  tQa^  (Qetv  * 

ie  w  U7Cv(  tfit 

fb:  t^e  wpnp 

3ticncnacpor)  of  C^fe/lb^icfe  Ibw  namcot  /  ^e  fgtft  _ 
/of  ib^me  t8pfeot|K  ie  comet)  fotQt  h)6bCao?  anO 


6mpecour  of  ffcomt  of  Ib^mp  t^pfiorpec  Get)  ibcC  ft  no 
ono?  Oa^/^no?  ^a  fot  (Qc  f^tr  jetbce  lb$pc&?  atyb  Ibcce  cofbrc 
t^pncncuacpo?;  of  out  (too?  of  tbfcme  tQc  fgrft  fbae  2>tic  2o/ 
(tie  \l%cfe  Bcoug^  ^c  c^^ocit)  of  QfcafrC  nj  to  t^c  fenOc  of 
fecono  fiDawgo?  C?"^  of  36ecuraP««)/  ^  %  KJgto? 
of  Kfcfc  4tx  tQe  6j)6Ce  ttQcroetQ  aC  t^ept  no 


and? 

nom6ct  op  t 

tb^imc  tbae  fgcft  t?c  no6&  TtctQuc  /  tbfre  no6f«  acfre  3  put 
poffe  <b  tbtg6r  nj  rf)j)c  pwfcn^  6boft  Qnx  fbft>!bpng/  3:ft?  fccono? 
tbae  C^tGrmagn  o:  £ftuGw  t^  g;or6r/  of  ^(jomc  %fforpe  ie 
man?  pCacee  6b(Qc  m  fomffk  ano?  cn^Cpfffe/  ano;  tQe 
atto?  Cap  tbae  6&Qef  cap  of  6ofopn/of  ^fr>e  acfee  €  c^f 
a  6oofi  9ntb  tQc^affeni  pij?noe  ano?  6png?  of  no6fc  me 
mor        H026t>tbaro2  C^fburtQ  /  ffo  fag^  no6K?  3«n^emc»| 
me  Ormpt^nCe  t^^orjc  of  tQ*  fapa?  no6& 
ano?  conqu*nmt  6^nga  Tttt^ut  /ano;  of  i)ie  finpg^s 
^^otpe  of  ffa  fat>ne  gwaC/anD  of  eQc  tet6  ano?  cnopng 
of  t^e  ragty  71  tt^ut/  Tiff  etmp  1192  (fia<  j  oaje  m$ 
noBla  fea^e  /  e^at|  of  cjoteftqw  o 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  7.87x11.25  inches 


So  judiciously  contrived  that  the  wisest  may 
exercise  at  once  their  knowledge  and  devo- 
tion; its  ceremonies  few  and  innocent;  its 
language  significant  and  perspicuous;  most 
of  the  words  and  phrases  being  taken  out  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  rest  are  the 
expressions  of  the  first  and  purest  ages. 

COMBER 


8 


fcoofce  of  tSe  tommott  pjaiet 
aimrimttratum  of  tpe 

,  anb 

otbeT  tttesr  anU 
ceremonies 


L  O  N  D I N I ,  in  oicina^icljttrdi  Grafton^ 
imtareflcrtt* 


Cum  priuttcgio  ad  imprimendumfolum . 


A.mo  Domw.  M.  D.  X  L  t  X. 
Wen/e  M«ftt»y. 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  7.5x10.5  inches 


The  author  of  Piers  Ploughman,  no  doubt, 
embodied  in  a  poetic  dress  just  what  millions 
felt.  His  poem  as  truly  expressed  the  pop- 
ular sentiment  on  the  subjects  it  discussed 
as  did  the  American  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence the  national  thought  and  feeling  on  the 
relations  between  the  Colonies  and  Great  Brit- 
ain. Its  dialect,  its  tone  and  its  poetic  dress 
alike  conspired  to  secure  to  the  Vision  a 
wide  circulation  among  the  commonalty  of  the 
realm,  and  by  formulating  —  to  use  a  favor- 
ite word  of  the  day  —  sentiments  almost  uni- 
versally felt,  though  but  dimly  apprehended, 
it  brought  them  into  distinct  consciousness, 
and  thus  prepared  the  English  people  for  the 
reception  of  the  seed  which  the  labors  of 
Wycliffe  and  his  converts  were  already  sow- 
ing among  them. 

MARSH 


10 


By  far  the  most  important  of  our 
historical  records,  in  print,  during 
the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 


DIBDIN 


12 


Firfte  volume  of  the 

Cbronwles  of  England ,Sc  ot~ 

lande,  and  Irelande. 


CONTEYNlNGi 

<t  J)e  tffcrfpHonano  4T  htonidf  s  of  <E  ng!anb  .from  ttje 
ftrft  Inhabiting  Unto  the  eonqurft 


ftrR  ojtgmatl  of  tiic  ftcotteg  nation,  tm  ti)(  prare 


of  ^Jrtanop, 

(tout  tl)t  firflc  o?i3inall  of  ti;at  jSation 


fMbfitlly  gtthereil  aid  fct  fotfbf 
RiphicllHoJinfhcd. 


AT    LONDON* 
Imprinted  for  George Bilhop 


God  ftue  the  Queene, 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  7.75x11.12  inches 


Our  historic  plays  are  allowed  to  have 
been  founded  on  the  heroic  narratives 
in  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates ;  to  that 
plan,  and  to  the  boldness  of  Lord 
Buckhurst's  new  scenes,  perhaps  we 
owe  Shakespeare. 

WALPOLE 


Mngiftrates. 

Wljerem  mapeteftenbP 

example  of  *ti)ci;,ft)ttt)  fjofoe  gre* 


fcotbc  f  raple  ano  bnttabU  tocjlDl^ 
p^ofpcru?  ta  fcuntic,  cDcu  of 


in  tt  I)  mod 
to  f^uour, 


w  quern  faiimt  atiau  pcricuU  cwtunt* 


$  Imprinted  at  London  in  Fleteftn  te 
ttercto 


Two  chieftaines  who  having  travailed  into 
Italic,  and  there  tasted  the  sweete  and 
stately  measures  and  stile  of  Italian  Poesie, 
as  novices  newly  crept  out  of  the  schooles 
of  Dante,  Arioste,  and  Petrarch,  they 
greatly  pollished  our  rude  and  homely 
maner  of  vulgar  Poesie,  from  that  it  had 
bene  before,  and  for  that  cause  may  justly 
be  sayd  the  first  reformers  of  our  English 
meetre  and  stile. 

PUTTENHAM 


16 


fSONCES  AN®  SONE1TES 
Britten  by  the  right  honorable 
Lord  Henry  tJawardUte 
Earle  of  Surrey, and 
others. 


rdumTottell' 


It  is  full  of  stately  speeches,  and  well- 
sounding  phrases,  clyming  to  the  height 
of  Seneca  his  stile,  and  as  full  of  notable 
moralitie,  which  it  doth  most  delightfully 
teach,  and  so  obtayne  the  very  end  of 
Poesie. 

SIDNEY 


18 


Tragidie  ofFerrex 

and  Porrex, 

fet  forth  without  addition  or  alte- 
ration but  altogether  as  the  fame  was  fhewed 
on  ftage  before  the  Queenes  Maieftie, 
about  nine  yeares  paft ,  v&.  the 
xviij.  day  of  lanuarie.  iy5i. 
by  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Inner  Temple. 


£>ccn  ant)  allotuct).  f  c. 


$£?  Imprinted  at  London  by 

lohn  Daye, dwelling oii€r 
Alderfgate. 


These  papers  of  his  lay  like  dead  lawrels  in  a 
churchyard;  but  I  have  gathered  the  scattered 
branches  up,  and  by  a  charme,  gotten  from  Apollo, 
made  them  greene  againe  and  set  them  up  as 
epitaphes  to  his  memory.  A  sinne  it  were  to  suffer 
these  rare  monuments  of  wit  to  lye  covered  in  dust 
and  a  shame  such  conceipted  comedies  should  be 
acted  by  none  but  wormes.  Oblivion  shall  not  so 
trample  on  a  sonne  of  the  Muses ;  and  such  a 
sonne  as  they  called  their  darling.  Our  nation 
are  in  his  debt  for  a  new  English  which  he  taught 
them.  "  Euphues  and  his  England  "  began  first 
that  language  :  all  our  ladyes  were  then  his  scol- 
lers ;  and  that  beautie  in  court,  which  could  not 
parley  Eupheueisme  was  as  little  regarded  as  shee 

which  now  there  speakes  not  French. 

BLOUNT 


20 


EVPHVES. 
THE  ANATOMY 


Verie  pleafant  for  all 
(jentlcmen  to  reade^ 

and  molt  ncccflary  to 
remember. 

ein  are  contayned  the 

delightes  that  wit  followeth  in 

hit  youth*  ly  thepteafdntneffe  of  tone, 

and  the  happinellc  lie  leapech 

in  age,  by  the  perfe£tnc$ 

of  wifcdomc. 

By  lohn  Lylie,  Mdf/lc  r 


I 


Corrcltedend  augmented. 

^T    LON  DON 
Printed  for  Gabriel!  Cawood, 

dwelling  in  Panics  Church-yard. 


The  noble  and  vertuous  gentleman 
most  worthy  of  all  titles  both  of 
learning  and  chevalrie  M.  Philip 

Sidney. 

SPENSER 


22 


COVNTESSE 


WRITTEN    BY  SIR  PHILIPPE 
S  I D  N  E  L 


LONDON 

Printed  for  William  Ponfbnbie. 
t^nno  Domini,  ijpo. 


Our  sage  and  serious  poet  Spenser  (whom 
I  dare  be  known  to  think  a  better  teacher 

than  Scotus  or  Aquinas). 

MILTON 


24 


THE  FAERIE 

QVEENE. 

Difpofed  into  twelue  books, 

fafaioning 

XII.  Morall  vertues. 


LONDON 

Priatcd  for  William  Ponfonbic. 
1  5  9  o. 


Who  is  there  that  upon  hearing  the  name 
of  Lord  Bacon  does  not  instantly  recog- 
nize everything  of  literature  the  most 
extensive,  everything  of  discovery  the 
most  penetrating,  everything  of  observa- 
tion of  human  life  the  most  distinguished 

and  refined  ? 

BURKE 


26 


EfTai 


aies. 


Religious 

dilations. 

Places  of  perfwafion 

and  diflwafion. 
Scene  and  allowed* 


LONDON 

Printed  for  Humfrey  Hooper 

and  are  to  bee  foldc  at  the 

blacke  Beare  in  Chaun- 

cerylane.  1598. 


They  contain  the  heroic  tales  of  the  exploits  of  the 
great  men  in  whom  the  new  era  was  inaugurated  ; 
not  mythic  like  the  Iliads  and  the  Eddas,  but  plain, 
broad  narratives  of  substantial  facts,  which  rival 
legend  in  interest  and  grandeur.  What  the  old 
epics  were  to  the  royally  or  nobly  born,  this  mod- 
ern epic  is  to  the  common  people.  We  have  no 
longer  kings  or  princes  for  chief  actors  to  whom 
the  heroism,  like  the  dominion  of  the  world,  had 
in  time  past  been  confined.  But,  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  the  Apostles,  when  a  few  poor  fishermen 
from  an  obscure  lake  in  Palestine  assumed,  under 
the  Divine  Mission,  the  spiritual  authority  over 
mankind,  so,  in  the  days  of  our  own  Elizabeth, 
the  seamen  from  the  banks  of  the  Thames  and  the 
Avon,  the  Plym  and  the  Dart,  self-taught  and 
self-directed,  with  no  impulse  but  what  was  beat- 
ing in  their  own  royal  hearts,  went  out  across  the 
unknown  seas,  fighting,  discovering,  colonizing, 
and  graved  out  the  channels,  paving  them  at  last 
with  their  bones,  through  which  the  commerce 
and  enterprise  of  England  has  flowed  out  over  all 
the  world. 

FROUDE 


28 


PRINCIPAL  NAVI- 

GATIONS, VOIAGES, 

TRAFFIQJVES  AND  DISCO- 

ueriesof  the  Englifh  Nation,  made  by  Sea 

or  ouer-land  ,  to  the  remote  and  fartheft  di- 

flant  quarters  of  the  Earth,  at  any  time  within 

the  compafle  of  thefe  1500.  yeeres  :  Deuided 

into  three  feuerall  Volumes,  according  to  the 

pofitions  of  the  Regions,  whercunto 

they  were  direfled. 

ThisfirftVolumecontainingthewoorthyDifcoueries, 
&c.  of  the  Englifh  toward  the  North  and  Northeaft  by  Sea, 


goieue,  faigafz,  and  Noua  Zembla,  toward  the  great  riuer  Obt 

with  the  mighty  Empire  of  Rujpay  the  Cafpian  fea,  Geor- 

gia, Armenia,  Media,  Per/ta,  Bog/jar  in  Baflria, 

and  diuers  kingdoms  of  Tartaria  : 

Together  with  many  notable  monuments  and  teftimo- 

nies  of  the  ancient  forren  trades,  and  of  the  warrelike  and 
other  fliipping  of  this  realme  of  England  in  former  ages. 

Whereunto  is  annexed  alfo  a  brief  e  Commentarie  of  the  true 

flate  of  I/land,  and  of  the  Northren  Seas  and 

lands  fituate  that  way. 

And  lajily,  the  memorable  defeate  of  the  Spanifi  huge 

Armada,  Anno  1588.  and  the  famous  vi&orie 

atchieued  at  the  citie  of  Cadiz,  1596. 

are  defcribed. 

toy  RICHARD  HA  cict  VVT  Majler  cf 

Artes,  and  fometime  Student  of  Chritl- 

Church  in  Oxford. 


Jjf  Imprinted  at  London  by  GEORGE 
BISHOP,  RALPH  NEWBERIE 
and  ROBERT  BARKER. 
1598. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  7x10.87  inches 


Much  have  I  travell'd  in  the  realms  of  gold 

And  many  goodly  states  and  kingdoms  seen ; 

Round  many  western  islands  have  I  been 
Which  bards  in  fealty  to  Apollo  hold. 
Oft  of  one  wide  expanse  had  I  been  told 

That  deep-brow'd  Homer  ruled  as  his  demesne ; 

Yet  did  I  never  breathe  its  pure  serene 
Till  I  heard  Chapman  speak  out  loud  and  bold : 
Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the  skies 

When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken ; 
Or  like  stout  Cortez,  when  with  eagle  eyes 

He  stared  at  the  Pacific  —  and  all  his  men 
Look'd  at  each  other  with  a  wild  surmise  — 

Silent,  upon  a  peak  in  Darien. 

KEATS 


in  Irowm, 


THE 

WHOLE    WORKS 
OF 

HOMER; 

PRINCE  OF  POETTS^ 

In  lais  Iliads ,  and 
Odyfacs . 


Omma  ab.  Jiis;et  m  bisjunt  omma,: 
~T<r  decor  clo^m^Jfu  reru  pmdera. ' 

rinted  for  Natbanif 
rm-frrL  cU"./:  f:..fi. 


4/litur  laepte 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  7.06x10.93  inches 


Within  that  awful  volume  lies 
The  mystery  of  mysteries  ! 
Happiest  they  of  human  race, 
To  whom  God  has  granted  grace 
To  read,  to  fear,  to  hope,  to  pray, 
To  lift  the  latch,  and  force  the  way ; 
And  better  had  they  ne'er  been  born 
Who  read  to  doubt,  or  read  to  scorn. 

SCOTT 


Conteyning  the  Old  Tefta- 

r  n^niir     -n-irl  tho'KT.aii.  •  ^ 


•p  tranflated  out  of  t 

the  Or  Jginall  Tongues:  and  with 

the  former  Tranflations  diligently 

compared  and  reuifed  by  his 

Maicfhes  (peciall  Com- 

mandcmcnt. 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  9.87x15.25  inches 


O  rare  Ben  Jonson 

EPITAPH 


34 


THE 

ORKES 


naiu&,  ite  nrfrmircft/t  turb 

"^        ment 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  5x7.62  inches 


Scarce  any  book  of  philology  in  our 
land  hath  in  so  short  a  time  passed 
so  many  impressions. 

FULLER 


THE 

ANATOMY  OF 

MELANCHOLY. 

WHAT  IT  IS. 

WITH  ALL  THE  KINDES, 

CAVSES,SYMPTOMES,PROG« 

SEVS- 

OF  XT. 


IN  THREE  MAINE  PARTITIONS 

with  their  fcuerall  SECTIONS,  MEM* 

BERS,  and  SVB  SEC- 

TION s. 


9  HISTORIC  AILV,  OPE- 

err  r?. 


BY 

DEMOCKITVS  Jmtor* 

With  a  Swyricall  P  R  E  F  A  c  E,  condudng  to 
the  fo'timiHg  'Dtftovrjc. 


MACROS. 

Onmemeum,  Nihilmeura. 


t/srr 

Printed  by  I  o  H  N  LICH  PIE  ID  and  I  AMES 

SHORT,  for  HENRY  CRIPPS. 

Anno  Dm,  1621+ 


He  was  not  of  an  age,  but  for  all  time ! 

JONSON 


*  WILLIAM 


SHAKESPEARES 

COMEDIES, 
HISTORIES,    & 
TRAGEDIES. 

Published  according  to  the  True  Original!  Copies. 


LO  ^£>  0 
Printed  by  Ifaac  laggard,  and  Ed.  Blount.   1 61  j. 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  8.56x13.25  inches 


This  most  tragic  of  all  tragedies 
save  King  Lear. 

SWINBURNE 


40 


THE 

TRAGEDY 


OF  <IHE 

OfM&lfy. 

As  it  rpfuTrefentedpriuatly 

Friers  ,  and  publiquelyat  tbt  Globe>  By  the 
Kings  Maiefties  Seruants. 

The  perfect  and  exaft  Coppy,  with  diuerfe 
things  Printed^tbflt  the  length  of  the  Play  would 
ooi  beare  in  the  Prcfencmenr. 

Written  by  John  Webjler. 

flora.*     ' 


Candida  t  ImperttpnoHbu  vttrt  mticttm. 


LONDON' 

Printed  by  NICHOLAS  O*BS3  for  IP  aw 

WATERS  ON,  and  are  to  be  fold  at  the 
figoe  of  the  Crow/ic ,  in  'Ptutlts 
Church-yaid ,   1623. 


To  me  Massinger  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  as  well  as  one  of  the  most 
delightful  of  the  old  dramatists,  not  so 
much  for  his  passion  or  power,  though 
at  times  he  reaches  both,  as  for  the 
love  he  shows  for  those  things  that 
are  lovely  and  of  good  report  in  hu- 
man nature,  for  his  sympathy  with  what 
is  generous  and  high-minded  and  hon- 
orable and  for  his  equable  flow  of  a 
good  every-day  kind  of  poetry,  with 
few  rapids  or  cataracts,  but  singularly 
soothing  and  companionable. 

LOWELL 


42 


A  NEW  WAY  TO  PAT 

OLD  DEBTS 

A  COMOEDIE 

t  hath  beene  often  atted  at  the  *Ph<e- 
nix  in  ^Drury^Lane  >  by  the  Queenes 
<£\>faiefties  feruants  . 

The  Author. 


PHILIP  MASSINGER,. 


LONDON, 

Printed  by£  P.  forHemy  Seyle ,  dwelling  in  S. 
Pauls  Church-yard ,  at  the  figne  of  the 
Tylers  head.  Anno.  JM.  DC. 
'     XXXHL 


Ford  was  of  the  first  order  of  poets.  He 
sought  for  sublimity,  not  by  parcels  in 
metaphors  or  visible  images,  but  directly 
where  she  has  her  full  residence  in  the 
heart  of  man ;  in  the  actions  and  suffer- 
ings of  the  greatest  minds.  There  is  a 
grandeur  of  the  soul  above  mountains, 
seas,  and  the  elements.  Even  in  the  poor 
perverted  reason  of  Giovanni  and  Anna- 
bella  we  discover  traces  of  that  fiery  par- 
ticle, which  in  the  irregular  starting  from 
out  of  the  road  of  beaten  action,  discovers 
something  of  a  right  line  even  in  obliquity, 
and  shows  hints  of  an  improvable  great- 
ness in  the  lowest  descents  and  degrada- 
tion of  our  nature. 

LAMB 


44 


THE 

BROKEN 

HEART. 

A  Tragedy. 


By  the  K  i  N  G  s  Majcfties  Scruants 
at  the  priuate  Houie  ia  the 


Printed  by  /.>.  for  HVGH 

be  fdd  at  his  S)iopt  neert  the  GifiMr  it) 


!5  1 


Next  Marlow,  bathed  in  the  Thespian  springs, 
Had  in  him  those  brave  sublunary  things 
That  the  first  poets  had ;  his  raptures  were 
All  air  and  fire  which  made  his  verses  clear ; 
For  that  fine  madness  still  he  did  retain, 
Which  rightly  should  possess  a  poet's  brain. 

DRAYTON 


Tbe 


THE  RICH  IEVV 

OF  MALTA. 


IT   WAS    PLAYD 

BEFORE    THE    KINO    AND 
QVEENE,  IN  HIS   MAJESTIES 
Theatre  at  Wkite-Hnll^y  herMajefties 
Servants  at  the  Cock-fit. 

Writttnb)  CHRISTOJHERMARLO. 


Printed  by  I.  S.  for  Nicholas  rtrotfotar.,  and  are  to  be  fold 

at  bis  Shop  in  the  Inner-Temple,  mere  the 

Church.   1 6  3  j. 


Sir,  I  pray  deliver  this  little  book 
to  my  dear  brother  Farrar,  and  tell 
him  he  shall  find  in  it  a  picture  of 
the  many  spiritual  conflicts  that 
have  passed  betwixt  God  and  my 
soul,  before  I  would  subject  mine 
to  the  will  of  Jesus,  my  Master,  in 
Whose  service  I  have  now  found 
perfect  freedom.  Desire  him  to 
read  it ;  and  then,  if  he  can  think 
it  may  turn  to  the  advantage  of  any 
dejected  poor  soul,  let  it  be  made 
public;  if  not,  let  him  burn  it;  for 
I  and  it  are  less  than  the  least  of 

God's  mercies. 

HERBERT 


ess® 


sea* 


•es 


THE 

TEMPLE. 

SACRED  POEMS 

AND 

PRIVATE   EJA- 
CULATIONS. 


^ 


By  M'.  GEORGE  HERBERT. 


PSAL.    29. 


/>  Temple  doth  every 
manfpeak  of  his  honour. 


CAMBRIDGL 

Printed  by  Thorn.  Buck, 

and  /?og?r  "Daniel,  printers 
to  the  Umverfitic. 


Did  his  youth  scatter  poetry  wherein 

Lay  Love's  philosophy?     Was  every  sin 

Pictured  in  his  sharp  satires,  made  so  foul, 

That  some  have  fear'd  sin's  shapes,  and  kept  their  soul 

Safer  by  reading  verse:  did  he  give  days, 

Past  marble  monuments,  to  those  whose  praise 

He  would  perpetuate?     Did  he — I  fear 

Envy  will  doubt — these  at  his  twentieth  year? 

But,  more  matured,  did  his  rich  soul  conceive 

And  in  harmonious  holy  numbers  weave 

A  crown  of  sacred  sonnets,  fit  to  adorn 

A  dying  martyr's  brow,  or  to  be  worn 

On  that  blest  head  of  Mary  Magdalen, 

After  she  wiped  Christ's  feet,  but  not  till  then; 

Did  he — fit  for  such  penitents  as  she 

And  he  to  use — leave  us  a  Litany 

Which  all  devout  men  love,  and  doubtless  shall, 

As  times  grow  better,  grow  more  classical? 

Did  he  write  hymns,  for  piety  and  wit, 

Equal  to  those  great  grave  Prudentius  writ? 

WALTON 


J. 
WITH 

EL  E  G  I  ES 

ON  THE  AUTHORS 

DEATH. 


LONDON. 

Printed  by  M.F.  for  JOHN 
and  are  cobefold  achis  fliopinSc2)«»/&»« 
Church-yard  in  Fleet-Jreet,  1633. 


It  is  not  on  the  praises  of  others, 
but  on  his  own  writings  that  he  is 
to  depend  for  the  esteem  of  pos- 
terity ;  of  which  he  will  not  easily 
be  deprived  while  learning  shall 
have  any  reverence  among  men; 
for  there  is  no  science  in  which  he 
does  not  discover  some  skill;  and 
scarce  any  kind  of  knowledge,  pro- 
fane or  sacred,  abstruse  or  elegant, 
which  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
cultivated  with  success. 

JOHNSON 


Waller  was  smooth. 

POPE 


54 


THE 

VV  O  R  K  E  S 

,  V.'7;.'.'r.',''       OF 

SEDMOND  WALLER 

1        !      Efquire, 


|  Lately  a  Member  of  the  Ho- 

nourable  HOUSE  of 

COMMON  s, 

In  this  prefent  Parliament. 


NA.BKEHI. 


LONDON, 
Primed  for  Them™ 

1645. 


O  volume,  worthy,  leaf  by  leaf  and  cover, 

To  be  with  juice  of  cedar  washed  all  over ! 

Here  's  words  with  lines,  and  lines  with  scenes  consent 

To  raise  an  act  to  full  astonishment ; 

Here  melting  numbers,  words  of  power  to  move 

Young  men  to  swoon,  and  maids  to  die  for  love : 

Love  lies  a-bleeding  here  ;  Evadne  there 

Swells  with  brave  rage,  yet  comely  everywhere ; 

Here  's  A  Mad  Lover ;  there  that  high  design 

Of  King  and  No  King,  and  the  rare  plot  thine. 

So  that  where'er  we  circumvolve  our  eyes, 

Such  rich,  such  fresh,  such  sweet  varieties 

Ravish  our  spirits,  that  entranc'd  we  see, 

None  writes  love's  passion  in  the  world  like  thee. 

HERRICK 


COMEDIES 

AND 


FRAGEDIES 


FRANCIS  BEAVMONT 

Written  by<  AND  /Gentlemen. 

IOHN  FLETCHER 


Never  printed  before, 

And  aow  publifhed  by  the  Authours 

Originall  Copies. 


Si  quid  habmt  veri  Vatwn  prtfagia,  vivam. 


LONDON, 

Printed  for  Httmpbrey  Robinfin,  at  the  three  Pidgeom,  and  for 
Humphrey  Mofeley  at  the  Princes  <iArmes  in  Sc  Pauls 

Chuich-yard.    1647. 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  8.37x13.12  inches 


What  mighty  epics  have  been  wrecked  by  time 
Since  Herrick  launched  his  cockle-shell  of  rhyme 


ALDRICH 


HES'PE'RJ'DES: 

THE  WORKS 

BOTH 

HUMANE  &  DIVINE 

O  F 

Ro BERT  HERRICK  Efq. 

OVI  D. 

Effugient  Avidos  Carmitut  noftra  Rogos. 


L    O    N    7)    O 

Printed  for  tfohn  Williams^  and  Francis 
and  are  to  be  fold  at  the  Crown  and  Marygold 
in  Saint  P finis  Church-yard.  1648. 


Taylor,  the  Shakespeare  of  divines. 

EMERSON 


60 


That  is  a  book  you  should  read : 
such  sweet  religion  in  it,  next  to 
Woolman's,  though  the  subject  be 
bait,  and  hooks,  and  worms,  and 
fishes. 

LAMB 


62 


BeingaDifcourfeof 

FISH  and  FISHING, 

Not  unworthy  the  perufal  of  moft  Anglers. 

Simon  Peter  faid>  /goafifhing:  And.  tbeyfaid,  We 
alfo  wit-go  m  tb  tbee.   ]  oh n  1 1 . 3 . 


London^  Printed  by  7".  Mtxey  for  RICH.  HARRIOT,  in 
S.Dunftans  Churcb-yard  Fleetftrcet, 


Yet  he,  consummate  master,  knew 
When  to  recede  and  when  pursue. 
His  noble  negligences  teach 
What  others'  toils  despair  to  reach. 
He,  perfect  dancer,  climbs  the  rope, 
And  balances  your  fear  and  hope ; 
If,  after  some  distinguished  leap, 
He  drops  his  pole,  and  seems  to  slip, 
Straight  gathering  all  his  active  strength, 
He  rises  higher  half  his  length. 
With  wonder  you  approve  his  slight, 
And  owe  your  pleasure  to  your  fright. 

PRIOR 


64 


H  U  D  I  B  R  A  S- 


THE  FIRST  PART. 


Written  in  the  time  of  the  late  Want 


LONDON, 

Printed  by  Jf.C.  for  nichtrd  Marriot,  coder  Saint 
Donftari's  Church  in  fleet ftrett.     1663. 


The  third  among  the  sons  of  light. 

SHELLEY 


66 


Paradife  loft. 

A 

POEM 

"Written  in 

TEN   BOOKS 

By  JOHN  MILTON, 


Licenfed  and  Entred  according 
to  Order. 


LONDON 

Printed,  and  are  to  be  fold  by  Peter  Parser 

under  Creed  Church  neer  Aldgtite^  And  by 

Robert  Boulter  at  the  Turfy  HeaJ'm  Bi/bopfeate-f/reet  • 

And  Matthiat  Walter ,  under  St.  Durftons  Church 

in  Wcet-flrcet ,   i  5  6  7. 


Ingenious  dreamer !  in  whose  well-told  tale 
Sweet  fiction  and  sweet  truth  alike  prevail ; 
Whose  humorous  vein,  strong  sense,  and  simple  style, 
May  teach  the  gayest,  make  the  gravest  smile ; 
Witty  and  well-employed,  and,  like  thy  Lord, 
Speaking  in  parables  his  slighted  word : — 
I  name  thee  not,  lest  so  despised  a  name 
Should  move  a  sneer  at  thy  deserved  fame. 

COWPER 


68 


THE 

Pilgrim  s  Progrefs 


THIS  WORLD, 


That  which  is  to  come: 


Delivered  under  the  Similitude  of  a 


Wherein  is  Difcovered , 

The  manner  of  his  letting  out, 

His  Dangerous  Journey^  And  lafe 

Arrival  at  the  Defired  Countrey. 


I  have  xfed  Similitudes,  Hof.  12.10. 


By  John  Buny&n. 


fcitcente*  anacfrurea  accojotnof 


L  0  N  D  O  N, 

Printed  for  Nath.  Ponder  at  the  Peaeoc ^ 
in  the  Poultry  near  Cornhil,  1678, 


Behold  where  Dryden's  less  presumptuous  car 

Wide  o'er  the  fields  of  glory  bear 

Two  coursers  of  ethereal  race, 

With  necks  in  thunder  clothed,  and  long-resounding  pace. 


GRAY 


70 


ABSALOM 

AND 

ACHITOPHEL 


POEM 


Si  Propiuf  Jler 

Te  Capiet  Magis 


LONDON, 

Printed  for  J.  T.  and  are  to  be  Sold  by  W.  Davis  in 
Amen-Corner,  i  68  I. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  7.75x12.56  inches 


Few  books  in  the  literature  of  philosophy 
have  so  widely  represented  the  spirit  of  the 
age  and  country  in  which  they  appeared, 
or  have  so  influenced  opinion  afterwards 
as  Locke's  Essay  concerning  Human  Un- 
derstanding. The  art  of  education,  po- 
litical thought,  theology  and  philosophy, 
especially  in  Britain,  France  and  America, 
long  bore  the  stamp  of  the  Essay,  or  of 
reaction  against  it. 

FRASER 


72 


A  N 


ESSAY 


CONCERNING 


In  Four  BOOKS. 


Quajn  bellum  eft  velle  confoeri  potius  nefcire  quod  nef* 
cias,  quam  ifta  ejfutientem  naufeare,  atque  ipfwn/ibi 
difplicere  !  Cic.  de  Natur.  Dcor.  /.  i. 


LONDON: 

• 

Printed  by  Eli%.  Holt,  for  1C8oma5  25aflet,  at  the 
in  Fkct/lrcet,  near  St.  'Dun/tans 
Church.    MDCXG 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  7.18x12.62  inches 


Oh !  that  your  brows  my  laurel  had  sustained, 
Well  had  I  been  deposed  if  you  had  reigned  ! 
The  father  had  descended  for  the  son ; 
For  only  you  are  lineal  to  the  throne. 

Yet  I  this  prophesy :  thou  shalt  be  seen, 
(Though  with  some  short  parenthesis  between,) 
High  on  the  throne  of  wit ;  and,  seated  there, 
Not  mine  (that  's  little)  but  thy  laurel  wear. 
Thy  first  attempt  an  early  promise  made, 
That  early  promise  this  has  more  than  paid ; 
So  bold,  yet  so  judiciously  you  dare, 
That  your  least  praise  is  to  be  regular. 

Already  I  am  worn  with  cares  and  age, 
And  just  abandoning  the  ungrateful  stage; 
Unprofitably  kept  at  heaven's  expense, 
I  live  a  rent-charge  on  his  providence. 
But  you,  whom  every  Muse  and  Grace  adorn, 
Whom  I  foresee  to  better  fortune  born, 
Be  kind  to  my  remains ;  and,  oh  defend, 
Against  your  judgment,  your  departed  friend  ! 
Let  not  the  insulting  foe  my  fame  pursue, 
But  shield  those  laurels  which  descend  to  you : 
And  take  for  tribute  what  these  lines  express : 
You  merit  more,  but  could  my  love  do  less. 

DRYDEN 


74 


THE 

WayoftheWorld, 

A 

COMEDY. 

As  it  is  ACTED 

AT    THE 

Theatre  in  Lincoln  s-Inn-Fields, 

BY 
His  Majefty's  Servants. 

Written  by  Mr.  CONCRETE. 

Judire  eft  Oper*  prelium,  procedere  retfe 
£ui  mAcku  nonvultis  -  Hor.  Sat.  2.  1.  i. 

"  Metuat  doti  deprenfa.  Ibid. 

LONDON: 

Printed  for  Jacob  Ton/on^  within  Graf$*lnn*Gate  next 

1700. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  6.5x8.5  inches 


For  an  Englishman  there  is  no 
single  historical  work  with  which 
it  can  be  so  necessary  for  him 
to  be  well  and  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted as  with  Clarendon. 

SOUTHEY 


THE 


HISTORY 

OF    T  HE 

REBELLION  and  CIVIL  WARS 


ENGLAND, 

Begun  in  the  Year  1641. 

With  the  precedent  Paflages,  and  A&ions,  that  contributed 
thereunto,  and  the  happy  End,  and  Conclufion  thereof 
by  the  KING'S  blefled  RESTORATION,  and 
RETURN  upon  the  ap'h  of  <J7W/z/,  in  the  Year  1660. 

Written  by  the  Right  Honourable 

EDWARD  Earl  of  CLARENDON, 

Late  Lord  High  Chancellour  o(  England,  Privy  Coun  fell  our 
in  the  Reigns  of  King  CHARLES  the  Firft  and  the  Second. 


I?  «'«.     Thucyd. 
Nie  quid  Falft  dicere  audeat,  tie  quid  Veri  nott  audeat.   Cicero. 

VOLUME  THE  FIRST. 


OXFORD, 
Printed  at  the  THEATER,  of*  Vom.  MDCCIL 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  11x17.5  inches 


It  is  incredible  to  conceive  the  effect  his  writings 
have  had  upon  the  Town ;  how  many  thousand 
follies  they  have  either  quite  banished  or  given  a 
very  great  check  to  !  how  much  countenance  they 
have  added  to  Virtue  and  Religion !  how  many 
people  they  have  rendered  happy,  by  showing 
them  it  was  their  own  fault  if  they  were  not  so ! 
and  lastly  how  entirely  they  have  convinced  our 
young  fops  and  young  fellows  of  the  value  and 
advantages  of  Learning !  He  has  indeed  rescued 
it  out  of  the  hands  of  pedants,  and  fools,  and  dis- 
covered the  true  method  of  making  it  amiable  and 
lovely  to  all  mankind.  In  the  dress  he  gives  it, 
it  is  a  most  welcome  guest  at  tea-tables  and 
assemblies,  and  is  relished  and  caressed  by  the 
merchants  on  the  Change.  Accordingly,  there  is 
not  a  Lady  at  Court,  nor  a  Broker  in  Lombard 
Street,  who  is  not  easily  persuaded  that  Captain 
Steele  is  the  greatest  Scholar  and  Casuist  of  any 
man  in  England. 

GAY 


THE 


O    F 


Ifaac  BickerftafF  Efq; 


VOL.    I. 


'0«J 


'jfov  ttWy«.    Homer. 


LO  N  t>  0  ft 

Primed :  And  fold  by  John  Marphev,  ncax Stationers-Hall.  M  DCC  X. 


O  M/r,  The  BooJtbuider  is  defaed  to  place  the  I N  D  E  X  aftei  [T«t<r,  N'.  114 1 
which  ends  the  Fitf  ^" 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  9.56x14.37^^63 


Whoever  wishes  to  attain  an  English 
style,  familiar  but  not  coarse,  and 
elegant  but  not  ostentatious,  must  give 
his  days  and  nights  to  the  volumes 
of  Addison. 

JOHNSON 


80 


NUMB,  i 


The  SPECTATOR. 


Non  fumum  ex  fulgorey  fed  ex  fumo  dare  lucem 

ut  Jpeciofa  dehinc  miracula  fromat.         Hor. 


To  be  Continued  every  Day. 


Thurfday,  March  x.    1711. 


I  Have  obferved,  that  a  Reader  feldoru  perufes 
a  Book  wfth  Pjeafure  'till  he  knows  whether 
the  Writer  of  it  be  a  black  or  a  fair  Man,  of 
A  mild  or  cholerick  Difpofition,  Married  or  a 
Bachelor,     with    other   Particulars   of  the  like 
nature,   that  conduce  very  much  to  the  right  Un- 
doftanding  of  an  Author.    To  gratify  this  Curio- 
fty,  which  is  fo  natural  to  a  Reader,  I  defign  this 
Ptper,  and  my  next,  as  Prefatory  Difcourfes  to  my 
following  Writings ,  and  (hall  give  fomc  Account 
in  them  of  the  feveral  Pcrfons  that  are  engaged  in 
this  Work.    As  the  chief  Trouble  of  Compiling, 
Digefting  and  Correcting  will  fall  to  my  Share,  1 
inuft  do  my  felf  the  Juftice  to  open  the  Work 
•with  my  own  Hiftory. 

1  was  born  to  a  fmall  Hereditary  Eftate ,  which 
Ifind\  by  the  Writings  of  the  Family,  was  bounded 
by  the  fame  Hedges  and  Ditches  in  tf^rSiam  the 
Conqueror's  Time  that  it  is  at  prefent,  and  has 
teen  delivered  down  from  Father  to  Son  whole 
sad  entire,  without  the  Lofs  or  Acquifition  of  a 
fmgle  Field  or  Meadow,  during  the  Space  of  fix 
hundred  Years.  There  goes  a  Story  in  the  Family, 
that  when  my  Mother  was  goae  with  Child  of  me 
about  three  Months,  (he  dreamt  that  (he  was  brought 
to  Bod  of  a  Judge  :  Whether  this  might  proceed 
from  a  Law-Suit  which  was  then  depending  in 
the  Family,  or  my  Father's  being  a  Juftice  of 
the  Peace,  I  cannot  determine;  for  1  am  not  fo 
v«n  a*  to  think  itprefaged  any  Dignity  that  I  (hould 
arrive  at  in  my  ftture  Life,  though  that  was  the 
Interpretation  which  the  Neighbourhood  put  up- 
on it  The  Gravity  of  my  Behaviour  at  my  very  firft 
Appearance  in  the  World,  and  all  the  Time  that  I 
fucked,  feemed  to  favour  my  Mother's  Dream: 
For,  as  flic  has  often  told  me,  I  threw  away  my 
Rattle  before  1  was  two  Months  old,  and  would 
not  rrwke  ufc  of  my  Coral  'till  they  had  taken 
away  the  Bells  from  it. 

Af  for  the  reft  of  my  Infancy,  there  being  no- 
thfaf?  in  it  remarkable,!  (hall  pals  it  over  iu  Silence. 
I  tind,  that,  during  my  Nonage,  I  had  the  Reputa- 
tion of  a  very  iullen  Youth,  but  was  always  a 
Favotrrke  ef  my  School-Matter,  who  nfed  to  UT, 
,b*t  my  Portt  were  Juliit  an4  would  wear  well.  I 
bad  not  been  long  at  tne  Univerlity,  before  I  di- 


ftinguifhedmy  felf  by  a  rooft  profound  Silence:  For, 
daring  the  Space  of  eight  Years,  excepting  iu 
the  publick  Exercifes  or  the  College,  I  fcarce  ut- 
tered the  Quantity  of  an  hundred  Words;  and  in- 
deed do  not  remember  that  I  ever  fpoke  three  Sen- 
tences together  in  my  whole  Life.  Whilft  I  was 
in  this  Learned  Body  I  applied  my  felf  with  fo 
much  Diligence  to  my  Studies,  that  there  are  vet? 
few  celebrated  Books,  either  in  the  Learned  or  the 
Modern  Tongues,  which  I  am  not  acquainted 
with. 

Upon  the  Death  of  my  Father  I  was  refolvedt 
to  travel  into  Foreign  Countries,  and  therefore 
left  the  Univerfity,  with  the  Character  of  an  odd 
unaccountable  Fellow,  that  had,  a  great  deal  of 
Learning,  if  I  would  but  (how  ft.  An  bfatiable 
Thirft  after  Knowledge  carried  me  into  all  the 
Countries  of  Europe,  where  there  was  any  thing 
new  or  ftrange  to  be  ften ;  nay,  to  fuch  a  Degree 
was  my  Curiofity  raifed,  that  having  read  the  Con- 
troverfies  of  fome  great  Men  concerning  the  An- 
tiquities of  Egyft,  1  made  a  Voyage  to  GranJ 
Cairo,  on  purpofe  to  take  the  Mealure  of  a  Pyra- 
mid; and  as  foon  as  I  hadfet  my  felf  right  in  that 
Particular,  returned  to  my  Native  Country  with 
great  Satisfaction. 

1  have  pafled  my  latter  Years  in  this  City,  where 
I  am  frequently  feen  in  moft  publick  Places,  tho* 
there  are  not  above  half  a  dozen  of  my  fe!e<2 
Friends  that  know  me;  of  whom  my  next  Paper 
fhall  give  a  more  particular  Account.  There  is 
no  Place  of  publick  Refort,  wherein  Ido  not  often 
make  my  Appearance;  fometimes  I  am  feen  thrufr 
ing  my  Head  into  a  Round  of  Politicians  at  Hull's, 
and  1  iltning  with  great  Attention  to  the  Narratives  that 
are  made  in  thofe  little  Circular  Audiences.  Some- 
times I  fmoak  a  Pipe  at  C/WWs;  and  whilft  1  feem 
attentive  to  nothing  but  the  Poft-Man,  over-hear 
the  Converfation  of  every  Table  in  the  Room.  I 
appear  on  Sunday  Nights  at  St.  James's  Coffes- 
Houfe,  and  fometimes  join  the  little.  Committee 
of  Politicks  in  the  Inner -Room,  as  one  whocoines 
fhere  to  hear  and  improve.  My  Face  is  likewifc 
very  well  known  at  the  Grecian,  the  Cteoa-Jrct, 
and  in  the  Theaters  both  of  Dr*ry-Lu>(,  and  th« 
Hey-Marktt.  I  havo  been  takea  for  a  Merchant 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  8.12x13.12  inches 


It  breathes  throughout  a  spirit  of  piety  and 
benevolence;  it  sets  in  a  very  striking  light 
the  importance  of  the  mechanic  arts,  which 
they  who  know  not  what  it  is  to  be  without 
them  are  apt  to  undervalue.  It  fixes  in  the 
mind  a  lively  idea  of  the  horrors  of  solitude, 
and,  consequently,  of  the  sweets  of  social 
life,  and  of  the  blessings  we  derive  from  con- 
versation and  mutual  aid ;  and  it  shows  how 
by  labouring  with  one's  own  hands,  one  may 
secure  independence,  and  open  for  one's  self 
many  sources  of  health  and  amusement.  I 
agree,  therefore,  with  Rousseau,  that  this  is 
one  of  the  best  books  that  can  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  children. 

BEATTIE 


82 


THE 


LIFE 

AND 

STRANGE  SURPRIZING 

ADVENTURES 

O  F 

ROBINSON  CRUSOE, 

Of  TORK,  MARINER: 
Who  lived  Eight  and  Twenty  Years, 

all  alone  in  an  un-inhabited  Ifland  on  the 
Coaft  of  AMERICA,  near  the  Mouth  o 
the  Great  River  of  OROONOQ.UE; 

Having  been  caft  on  Shore  by  Shipwreck,  where 
in  all  the  Men  periflied  but  himfelf. 

WITH 

An  Account  how  he  was  at  laft  as  ftrangely  deli 
ver'd  by  PYRATES. 


Written  by  Himfelf. 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  W.  T  A  Y  L  OR  at  the  Ship  in Pater- Nofter- 
Row.    MDCCXIX. 


Anima  Rabelasii  habitans  in  sicco 

COLERIDGE 


84 


INTO     SEVERAL 


Remote  NATIONS 


W  O  R  u  3. 


By  LEMUEL  GULLIVER, 
Firft  a  SURGEON,  and  then  a  CAP- 
TAIN of  feveral  SHIPS. 


VOL.  I. 


L  0  N  T>  0  X: 

Trinted  for  BENJ.  MOTTE,  at  the 

Middle  Temple-Gate  in  Fleet-ftreet. 

MDCCXXVI. 


I  think  no  English  poet  ever  brought 
so  much  sense  into  the  same  number 
of  lines  with  equal  smoothness,  ease, 
and  poetical  beauty.  Let  him  who 
doubts  of  this  peruse  the  Essay  on 
Man  with  attention. 

SHENSTONE 


86 


A    N 


ESS     A      Y 


O    N 


M     A     N 


Addrefs'dtoa  FRIEND. 


PART    I 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  y.  Wilfordy  at  the  Three  Flower-de-luces,  be- 
hind the  Chapter-houfe,  St.  Tauls. 
[Price  One  Shilling.] 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  8.5x12.62  inches 


It  was  about  this  date,  I  suppose,  that  I  read 
Bishop  Butler's  Analogy ;  the  study  of  which 
has  been  to  so  many,  as  it  was  to  me,  an  era 
in  their  religious  opinions.  Its  inculcation  of 
a  visible  church,  the  oracle  of  truth  and  a 
pattern  of  sanctity,  of  the  duties  of  external 
religion,  and  of  the  historical  character  of 
Revelation,  are  characteristics  of  this  great 
work  which  strike  the  reader  at  once;  for 
myself,  if  I  may  attempt  to  determine  what 
I  most  gained  from  it,  it  lay  in  two  points 
which  I  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  dwell- 
ing on  in  the  sequel:  they  are  the  underlying 
principles  of  a  great  portion  of  my  teaching. 

NEWMAN 


88 


THE 

ANALOGY 

O  F 

RELIGION, 

Natural    and     Revealed, 


To  which  are  added 

Two  brief  D  I  S  S  E  RTATI O  N  S  : 

I.  Of  PERSONAL  IDENTITY. 
II.  Of  the  NATURE   of  VIRTUE. 

B  Y 

JOSEPH     BUTLER,     L   L.    D.      Reftor    of 
Stanhope,    in   the   Bifhoprick   of  Durham. 

Ejus  ( Analogiae )  bac  vis  ejly  ut  id  quod  dubium  eft,    ad  aliquid  fimile  de  quo 
non  <juaritury  referat ;  ut  incerta  certis  probet. 

Quint.  Inft.  Orat.  L.  I.  c.  vi. 

LONDON: 

Printed  for  JAMES,  JOHN  and  P  A  u  L  K  N  A  p  T  o  N,   at  the 
Crown  in  Ludgate  Street.    MDCC  XXXVI. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  7.87x10.18  inches 


I  never  heard  the  olde  song  of 
Percy  and  Duglas  that  I  found 
not  my  heart  mooved  more  than 
with  a  Trumpet. 

SIDNEY 


90 


R    E   L   I 


U   E   S 


O  F 


ANCIENT  ENGLISH  POETRY; 

CONSISTING    OF 

Old  Heroic  BALLADS,  SONGS,  and  other 
PIECES  of  our  earlier  POETS, 

(Chiefly  of  the  LYRIC  kind.) 

Together  with  fome  few  of  later  Date. 

VOLUME    THE    FIRST. 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  J.  DODSLEY  in  Pali-Mall. 
M  DCC  LXV. 


From  dewy  pastures,  uplands  sweet  with  thyme, 
A  virgin  breeze  freshened  the  jaded  day. 

It  wafted  Collins'  lonely  vesper  chime, 

It  breathed  abroad  the  frugal  note  of  Gray. 


WATSON 


92 


ODES 

ON    SEVERAL 

Defcriptive   and  Allegoric 

SUBJECTS. 

By    WILLIAM    COLLINS. 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  A.  MILLAR,  m  the  Strand* 

M.DCC.XLVII. 
(Price  One  Shilling.) 


The  first  book  in  the  world 
for  the  knowledge  it  displays 
of  the  human  heart. 

JOHNSON 


94 


CLARISSA. 

OR,    THE 

HISTORY 

O  F     A 

YOUNG      LADY: 

Comprehending 

^be  moft  Important  Concerns  of  Private  LIFE. 

And  particularly  ftewing, 

The  DISTRESSES  that  may  attend  the  Mifconduft 
Both  of  PARENTS  and  CHILDREN, 

In  Relation  to  M  ARR  i  A  G  E. 

Publijhedby  tbe  EDITOR  of  PAMELA. 
V  O  L."T~ 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  S.  Richardfon: 

And  Sold  by  A.  MILLAR,  over-againfi  Catbarine-ftrtet  in 

J«  and  JA.  RIVINGTON,  in  St.  PauV*  Church-yard t 
JOHN    OSBORN,    in  Pater-r.ofter 
And  by  J.  LEAKE,  at  Bttth. 

M.DCC.XLYIir. 


Upon  my  word  I  think  the  CEdipus 
Tyrannus,  the  Alchymist,  and  Tom 
Jones  the  three  most  perfect  plots 

ever  planned. 

COLERIDGE 


96 


THE 

H  I  STORY 

O  F 

TOM  JONES, 

A 

FOUNDLING. 

In     SIX     VOLUMES. 
By  HENRY  FIELDING,  Efq; 

Mores  hominum  multorum  vidit 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  A.  MILLAR,  over-againft 

Catbarine-ftreet  in  the  Strand. 

MDCCXLIX. 


Now,  gentlemen,  I  would  rather 
be  the  author  of  that  poem  than 

take  Quebec. 

WOLFE 


A  N 


ELEGY 


WROTE    IN    A 


Country  Church  Yard 


i  0  ^  Z)  0  ^  .- 
Printed  for  R.  DODSLEY  in  Pall-matt  \ 
And  fold  by  M.  COOPER  in  Pater-nofter-Row.     1751. 

[  Price  Six-pence.  J 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  7.37x9.81  inches 


I  have  devoted  this  book,  the 
labour  of  years,  to  the  honour 
of  my  country,  that  we  may  no 
longer  yield  the  palm  of  philol- 
ogy without  a  contest  to  the 
nations  of  the  Continent. 

JOHNSON 


100 


DICTIONARY 

OF      THE 

ENGLISH    LANGUAGE: 

IN     WH  1C  M 

The  WORDS  are  deduced  from  their  ORIGINALS, 

AND 

ILLUSTRATED  in  their  DIFFERENT  SIGNIFICATIONS 

B  Y 

EXAMPLES   from  the  beft  WRITERS. 

TO    WHICH    ARE    PREFIXED, 

A    HISTORY   of  the   LANGUAGE, 

AND 


BY     SAMUEL     JOHNSON,      A.  M 

IN      TWO      VOLUMES 

VOL.      I. 


Cum  nbulU  animUm  centbru  lionet  honefis: 
Audebit  qmeCunque  parum  fplendoris  habebnnt, 
E(  fine  pondere  erunt,  el  honore  indigna  ferenWT. 
Veiba  raovere  loco;  quamvU  iiwitt  recedant, 
Et  verfentur  adhuc  intra  penetralia  Vefbs : 
Obfconta  diu  populo  bonus  cruet,  atque 
Proferet  in  lucent  rpeeiofa  vocabula  renim, 
Qu*  prifcis  memorau  Catonibus  atqiie  Cethegij, 
Nunc  litus  i:iformis  prenut  et  dtfcrtt  vetulha,  HoR. 


LONDON. 

Printed  by  W.  STBAH AW, 

For  J.  and  P.  KNAPTON  ;  T.  and  T.  LONGMAN  ;  C.  HITCH  and  L,  HAWBS; 
A.  MILLARS  and  R»  and  J,  DODSLBT. 
MDCCLV. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  10x16.18  inches 


Eripuit  coelo  fulmen  sceptrumque  tyrannis 

TURGOT 


102 


Poor  RICHARD  improved: 

BEING    AN 

ALMANACK 

AND 

EPHEMERIS 

O  F    T  H  E 

MOTIONS  of  the  SUN  and  MOON- 

THE    TRUE 

PLACES  and  ASPECTS  of  the  PLANETS  ; 

THE 
RISING  and  SETTING  of  the  SUN; 

AND    THE 

Rifing,  Setting  and  Southing  of  the  Moon, 

FOR    THE 

YEAR  of  our  LORD  1758: 
Being  the  Second  aftec  LEAP-YEAR. 

Containing  alfo, 

The  Lunations,  Conjunctions,  Eclipfes,  Judg- 
ment of  the  Weather,  Rifing  and  Setting  of  the 
Planets,  Length  of  Days  and  Nights,  Fairs,  Courts, 
Roads,  bV.  Together  with  ufeful  Tables,  chro- 
nological Obfervations,  and  entertaining  Remarks. 


Fitted  to  the  Latitude  of  Forty  Degrees,  and  a  Meridian  of  near 
five  Hoars  Weft  from  London  ;  but  may,  without  feafiblc  Error, 
fervc  all  the  NORTH  in  N  COLONIES. 

By   RICH4RD   SAUNDERS,  JPhilom, 

PHILADELPHIA: 
Printed  and  Sold  by  B.  FRANKLIN;  and  D.  HALL. 


There  your  son  will  find  analytical 
reasoning  diffused  in  a  pleasing  and 
perspicuous  style.  There  he  may 
imbibe,  imperceptibly,  the  first  prin- 
ciples on  which  our  excellent  laws 
are  founded ;  and  there  he  may  be- 
come acquainted  with  an  uncouth 
crabbed  author,  Coke  upon  Lytleton, 
who  has  disappointed  and  disheart- 
ened many  a  tyro,  but  who  cannot 
fail  to  please  in  a  modern  dress. 

MANSFIELD 


104 


COMMENTARIES 

O  N     T  H  E 

LAWS 

O  F 

ENGLAND. 

BOOK     THE     FIRST. 


B  Y 

WILLIAM     BLACKSTONE,      E  s 

VINERIAN    PROFESSOR    OF    LAW, 

AND 

SOLICITOR    GENERAL    TO    HER    MAJESTY. 


OXFORD, 

PRINTED    AT    THE    CLARENDON    PRESS. 
M.  DCC.  LXV. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  8.37x13.37  inches 


I  received  one  morning  a  message  from  poor 
Goldsmith  that  he  was  in  great  distress,  and,  as 
it  was  not  in  his  power  to  come  to  me,  begging 
that  I  would  come  to  him  as  soon  as  possible.  I 
sent  him  a  guinea,  and  promised  to  come  to  him 
directly.  I  accordingly  went  as  soon  as  I  was 
dressed,  and  found  that  his  landlady  had  arrested 
him  for  his  rent,  at  which  he  was  in  a  violent 
passion.  I  perceived  that  he  had  already  changed 
my  guinea,  and  had  got  a  bottle  of  madeira  and 
a  glass  before  him.  I  put  the  cork  into  the  bottle, 
desired  he  would  be  calm,  and  began  to  talk  to 
him  of  the  means  by  which  he  might  be  extri- 
cated. He  then  told  me  he  had  a  novel  (The 
Vicar  of  Wakefield]  ready  for  the  press,  which 
he  produced  to  me.  I  looked  into  it,  and  saw  its 
merit;  told  the  landlady  I  should  soon  return; 
and,  having  gone  to  a  bookseller,  sold  it  for  sixty 
pounds."*  I  brought  Goldsmith  the  money,  and  he 
discharged  his  rent,  not  without  rating  his  land- 
lady in  a  high  tone  for  having  used  him  so  ill. 

JOHNSON 


1 06 


THE 

VICAR 

O   F 

WAKEFIELD: 

A          TALE. 

Suppofed  to  be  written  by  HIMSELF* 

Sperate  miffrz,    cevetf  falices. 
VOL.     I. 


SALISBURY: 

Printed    by  B.  C  O  L  L  I  N  S< 

ForF.  NBWBBR.Y,  in  Pater-Nofter-Row,  London, 

MDCCLXVL 


His  exquisite  sensibility  is  ever 
counteracted  by  his  perception 
of  the  ludicrous  and  his  am- 
bition after  the  strange. 

TALFOURD 


1 08 


SENTIMENTAL  JOURNEY 

THROUGH 

FRANCE    AND    ITALY. 

B  Y 

MR.    Y  O  R  I  C  K. 
VOL.    I. 

LONDON: 

Printed  for  T.  BBCKET  and  P.  A.  DB  HONDT, 
in  the  Strand.    MDCCLXVIII. 


I  know  not  indeed  of  any  work  on  the 
principles  of  free  government  that  is  to 
be  compared,  in  instruction,  and  intrinsic 
value,  to  this  small  and  unpretending 
volume  of  The  Federalist,  not  even  if 
we  resort  to  Aristotle,  Cicero,  Machiavel, 
Montesquieu,  Milton,  Locke,  or  Burke. 
It  is  equally  admirable  in  the  depth  of 
its  wisdom,  the  comprehensiveness  of 
its  views,  the  sagacity  of  its  reflections, 
and  the  fearlessness,  patriotism,  candor, 
simplicity,  and  elegance  with  which  its 
truths  are  uttered  and  recommended. 

CHANCELLOR  KENT 


no 


THE 


FEDERAL  I  S  T: 

A     COLLECTION 


o     P 


NEW    CONSTITUTION, 


IN     TWO     VOLUMES 


VOL.    I. 


N  E  W-Y  O  R  K: 

PRINTED    AND    SOLD    BV  J.   AND   A.    M'LEAN, 

No.  41,  HANOVER-SQJJARE, 
M,  D  c  c,  L  x  x  x  v  i  j  i. 


The  novel  of  Humphrey  Clinker  is,  I 
do  think,  the  most  laughable  story  that 
has  ever  been  written  since  the  goodly 
art  of  novel-writing  began.  Winifred 
Jenkins  and  Tabitha  Bramble  must 
keep  Englishmen  on  the  grin  for  ages 
to  come;  and  in  their  letters  and  the 
story  of  their  loves  there  is  a  perpetual 
fount  of  sparkling  laughter,  as  inex- 
haustible as  Bladud's  well. 

THACKERAY 


I  12 


THE 

EXPEDITION 
op 

HUMPHRY    CLINKER. 

By  the  AUTHOR  of 

RODERICK  RANDOM. 


IN  THREE  VOLUMES. 
VOL.    I. 


— -Quorfum  haec  tarn  putida  tendunt, 
Furcifer  ?  ad  te,  inquam HOR» 


LONDON, 

Printed   for  W.  JOHNSTON,  in  Ludgatc-Strect  | 
and  B.  COLLINS,  in  Salifbury. 
MDCLXXI. 


Adam  Smith  contributed  more  by 
the  publication  of  this  single  work 
towards  the  happiness  of  men  than 
has  been  effected  by  the  united 
abilities  of  all  the  statesmen  and 
legislators  of  whom  history  has 
preserved  an  authentic  account. 

BUCKLE 


114 


A  N 


INQUIRY 


INTO     THE 


Nature    and    Caufes 

OF     THE 

WEALTH   OF    NATIONS. 

By    ADAM    SMITH,    LL.  D.    and    F.  R.  S. 

Formerly  Profeffor  of  Moral  Philofophy  in  the  Univerfuy  of  GLASGOW. 

IN    TWO    VOLUMES 
VOL.     I. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  FOR  W.  STRAHAN  ;    AND  T.  CADELL,  IN  THE  STRAND. 

MDCCLXXVI. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  8.62x10.87  inches 


Sapping  a  solemn  creed  with  solemn  sneer; 
The  lord  of  irony — 


BYRON 


116 


T    H   B 


HISTORY 


OF     THE 


OF     THE 


ROMAN      EMPIRE, 


By    EDWARD    GIBBON,     Efq; 


VOLUME    THE    FIRST. 


Jam  provideo  ammo,  velut  qu!,  proximis  littori  vadis  inducli,  mare  pedibus  Ingredi- 
untur,  quicquid  progredior,  in  vaftiorem  me  altitudinem,  ac  velut  profundum  invehi ;  ct 
crefcere  pene  opus,  quod  prima  quaeque  perficiendo  minui  videbatur. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED   FOR   W.    STRAHAN;    AND    T.    CADELL,    IN  THE  STRAND, 

MDCCLXXVI, 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  8.25x10.31  inches 


Whatever  Sheridan  has  done,  or  chosen  to 
do,  has  been  par  excellence  always  the  best 
of  its  kind.  He  has  written  the  best  comedy 
(School  for  Scandal],  the  best  drama  (in 
my  mind  far  beyond  that  St.  Giles  lam- 
poon, the  Beggar's  Opera],  the  best  farce 
(the  Critic, — and  it  is  only  too  good  for  a 
farce),  and  the  best  address  (Monologue  on 
Garrick],  and,  to  crown  all,  delivered  the 
very  best  oration  (the  famous  Begum 
speech)  ever  conceived  or  heard  in  this 
country. 

BYRON 


118 


THE 

SCHOOL 

FOR 

SCANDAL 

A 

COMEDY- 


Satire  has  always  shone  among  the  rest, 

And  is  the  boldest  way,  if  not  the  best, 

To  tell  men   freely   of  their  foulest  faults, 

To  laugh  at  their  vain   deeds,  and  vainer  thoughts. 

In  satire,  too,  the  wise  took  different  ways, 

To  each  deserving  its  peculiar  praise. 


DRYBEN. 


DUBLIN f 
Printed    for    J.    E  w  L  i  N  G. 


Of  all  the  verses  that  have  been  ever 
devoted  to  the  subject  of  domestic 
happiness,  those  in  his  Winter  Even- 
ing, at  the  opening  of  the  fourth  book 
of  the  Task,  are  perhaps  the  most 

beautiful. 

CAMPBELL 


1 20 


THB 

T          A          S 


POEM, 

IN        SIX       BOOKS. 
Br     WILLIAM     COWPER, 

OF     THB     INNBR     TIMPLE,     BSQ^. 


Fit  furculus  arbor. 

A*  O  N  t  M. 


To  which  arc  added, 
BY     THB     SAMS     AUTHOR, 

An  EPISTLE  to  JOSEPH   HILL,  Efq.    TIROCINIUM,  or  a 
REVIEW  of  SCHOOLS,  and  the  HISTORY  of  JOHN  GjLPirf. 


L    O    N    D    O    N» 

FQR    J.    JOHNSON,    N°    72,    *T.    PAWi-'S 
CHVRCH-YAR  D. 
1785. 


Through  busiest  street  and  loneliest  glen 

Are  felt  the  flashes  of  his  pen : 

He  rules  'mid  winter  snows,  and  when 

Bees  fill  their  hives : 
Deep  in  the  general  heart  of  men 

His  power  survives. 

WORDSWORTH 


122 


y-vstfX  -vw-vn,  &i's*» 

r  tlrS"- >••>••>->-»••»••>••>••>«>">->••»••>••>••»••>••>••>••>••»-»••>••>••»•>••>-»••>-»••>-»->-».•»"— 0?&j 


1   1 

H 

Y 

V 

POEMS, 

j 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

-<~<~4-4~4 

CHIEFLY     IN     THE 

i 

Y 

V 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

f 

SCOTTISH   DIALECT, 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

•Y 

Y 

Y 

w 

Y 

Y 

T 

Y 

B    Y 

Y 

•j 

Y 

«f 

Y 

Y 

Y 

ROBERT     BURNS* 

1 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

,  Y 

Y     , 

i      V 

Y  < 

1      i 

I 

THE  Simple  Bard,  unbroke  by  rules  of  Art, 

! 

Y 

Y 

He  pouts  the  wild  effiifions  of  the  heart  : 

Y 

Y 

And  if  infpir'd,  'tis  Nature's  pow'rs  infpire; 

I 

I 

Her's  all  the  melting  thrill,  and  her's  the  kindling  fire. 

4 

Y 

Y 

1 

ANONYMOUS. 

Y 

Y 

V 

Y 

Y 

Y 

Y 

..<..<..<.<••<  •<••<••<••<••<••<••«  '<"4"<"4"4"4"<-«"<"<"«"4-<"<"4"<"<"«"4"4"<-4 

V 

Y 

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f 

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t 

t 

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Y 

Y 

Y 

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J 

1 

KILMARNOCK: 

V 

T 

Y 

Y 

r 

Y 

PRINTED     BY    JOHN    WILSON. 

Y 

Y 

«««—•-»••»•—  ••—•—a 

Y 

Y 

BTt*"^""  ••••'••''••'••^^ 

Y 

Y 

Y 

M,DCC,LXXXVJ. 

Y 

>  JL 

-^..^..^..^^^ 

-k 

tffl 


Open  the  book  where  you  will,  it  takes 
you  out-of-doors.  In  simplicity  of  taste 
and  natural  refinement  he  reminds  you 
of  Walton;  in  tenderness  toward  what 
he  would  have  called  the  brute  creation, 
of  Cowper.  He  seems  to  have  lived 
before  the  Fall.  His  volumes  are  the 
journal  of  Adam  in  Paradise. 

LOWELL 


124 


TH  E 

NATURAL      HISTORY 

AND 

ANTIQUITIES 

O  F 

SELBORNE, 

IN      THE 

COUNTY    OF     SOUTHAMPTON: 

WITH 

ENGRAVINGS,    AND    AN    APPENDIX, 


—    —    —    "  ego  Apis  Matinee 

"  More  modoque 

"  Grata  carpentis    —    —    —    per  laborern 
"  Plurixnuin,"    —    .—    —    —    —  HOR. 

'«  Omnla  bene  defcribere,  quae  in  hoc  xnundo,  a  Deo  fafla,  aut  Nature  creatse  viribus 
"  elaborata  fuerunt,  opus  eft  non  unius  hominis,  nee  unius  jevi.  Hinc  Faurne  &  Florx 
«  utiliflimae  j  hine  MoMgrafbi  praeftantiffimi."  SCOPOLI  ANN.  H/ST.  NAT. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED    BY    T.    BENSLEYJ 
FOR    B.    WHITE    AWO    SON,    AT    HORACE'S   HEAD,   FLEET    STKEET. 

MtOCC)LXXXIX, 


Leaf  in  original,  7.43x9.5  inches 


He  is  without  parallel  in  any 
age  or  country,  except  perhaps 
Lord  Bacon  or  Cicero;  and  his 
works  contain  an  ampler  store 
of  political  and  moral  wisdom 
than  can  be  found  in  any  other 
writer  whatever. 

MACKINTOSH 


126 


REFLECTIONS 


ON      THE 

REVOLUTION    IN     FRANCE, 

AND     ON     THE 

PROCEEDINGS  IN  CERTAIN  SOCIETIES 
IN   LONDON 

RELATIVE    TO   THAT   EVENT. 


INTENDED  TO  HAVE  BEEN  SENT  TO  A  GENTLEMAN 
/  N    P  J  R  I  S. 

BY    THE    RIGHT    HONOURABLE 

EDMUND        BURKE. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  FOR  j.  DODSLEY,  IN  PALL-MALL. 

M.DCC.XC. 


The  great  Commoner  of  mankind 

CONWAY 


128 


RIGHTS  OF  MAN: 


BEING   AN 


ANSWER  TO  MR.  BURKE's  ATTACK 


ON   THE 


FRENCH  REVOLUTION* 


B  Y 


THOMAS    PAINE, 

SECRETARY   FOR   FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  TO  CONGRESS  IN  THE 

AMERICAN  WAR,    AND 
AUTHOR  OF  THE  WORK  INT1TLED  COMMON  SENSE. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  FOR  J.  JOHNSON,  ST  PAU1  *s  CHURCH- YARD. 
MDCCXCI. 


Homer  is  not  more  decidedly  the 
first  of  heroic  poets,  Shakespeare 
is  not  more  decidedly  the  first 
of  the  dramatists,  Demosthenes  is 
not  more  sensibly  the  first  of  or- 
ators, than  Boswell  is  the  first  of 
biographers. 

MACAULAY 


130 


THE 

LIFE 

O    F 

SAMUEL  JOHNSON,  LL.D. 

COMPREHENDING 

AN      ACCOUNT      OF      HIS     STUDIES 
AND     NUMEROUS     WORKS, 

IN     CHRONOLOGICAL     ORDER; 

A   SERIES    OF    HIS   EPISTOLARY   CORRESPONDENCE 

AND   CONVERSATIONS   WITH    MANY  EMINENT   PERSONS; 

AND 

VARIOUS  ORIGINAL  PIECES  OF  HIS  COMPOSITION, 

NEVER      BEFORE      PUBLISHED. 

THE  WHOLE   EXHIBITING    A  VIEW  OF  LITERATURE  AND  LITERARY  MEN 

IN  GREAT-BRITAIN,   FOR   NEAR   HALF    A    CENTURY. 

DURING   WHICH   HE   FLOURISHEa 

IN      TWO      VOLUMES. 

BY    JAMES      BOSWELL,     ESQ. 

Q?°  fl  ut   OMNIS 

Pot'tva  pateat  veluti  Jef/rifta  lobelia 

VITA  SENIS. HORAT. 

VOLUME      THE      FIRST. 

LONDON: 

PRINTED    BY    HENRY    BALDWIN, 

FOR    CHARLES    DILLY.    IN    THE    POULTRY. 
M  OCC  XCI. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  8.18x10.68  inches 


He  laid  us  as  we  lay  at  birth 
On  the  cool  flowery  lap  of  earth ; 
Smiles  broke  from  us  and  we  had  ease, 
The  hills  were  round  us,  and  the  breeze 
Went  o'er  the  sun-lit  fields  again; 
Our  foreheads  felt  the  wind  and  rain. 
Our  youth  return'd  ;  for  there  was  shed 
On  spirits  that  had  long  been  dead, 
Spirits  dried  up  and  closely  fuiTd, 
The  freshness  of  the  early  world. 

ARNOLD 


132 


LYRICAL  BALLADS, 


WITH 


A   FEW    OTHER    POEMS. 


LONDON: 

TRINT2D  FOR  J.  &  A.  ARCH,  ORACECHTJRCH-STREKT. 
1798. 


The  history  was  hailed  with  delight 
as  the  most  witty  and  original  pro- 
duction from  any  American  pen. 
The  first  foreign  critic  was  Scott, 
who  read  it  aloud  in  his  family  till 
their  sides  were  sore  with  laughing. 

WARNER 


A  HISTORY 

OF 

NEW    YORK, 

FROM   THE    BEGINNING   OF  THE  WORLD  TO  THE 
END   OF   THE   DUTCH    DYNASTY. 

CONTAINING 

Among  many  Surprising  and  Curious  Matters,  the  Unutterable 
renderings  of  WALTER  THE  DOUBTER,  the  Disastrous 
Projects  of  WILLIAM  THE  TESTY,  and  the  Chivalric 
Achievments  of  PETER  THE  HEADSTRONG,  the  three 
Dutch  Governors  of  NEW  AMSTERDAM;  being  the  only 
Authentic  History  of  the  Times  that  ever  hath  been,  or  ever 
will  be  Published. 


BY  DIEDRICH  KNICKERBOCKER. 


•De  toarljrtn  Die  in  twlfier  tag, 
Die  kontt  nut  Maartjciu  *m  mn  nag. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 


VOL.  I. 


PUBLISHED  BY  INSKEEP  fc?  BRADFORD,  NEW  YORK  } 
BRADFORD  &  INSKEEP,  PHILADELPHIA;  WM.  M*1L- 
HENNEY,  BOSTON)  COALE  &  THOMAS)  BALTIMORBj 
AND  MORFORD,  WJLLINGTON,  &  CO.  CHARLESTON. 

1809. 


The  Pilgrim  of  Eternity  whose  fame 
Over  his  living  head  like  heaven  is  bent 


SHELLEY 


136 


Cfjttoe 


A  ROMAUNT. 


BY 


LORD    BYRON. 


L'univers  est  une  espece  de  livre,  dont  on  n'a  lu  que  la  premiere  page  quand  on  n'a  vu  que  son  pays. 
J'en  ai  feuillete  un  assez  grand  nombre,  que  j'ai  troiire  egalement  mauvaises.  Get  examen  ne  m'a  point 
ete  infructueux.  Je  hafssais  ma  patrie.  Toutes  les  impertinences  des  peuples  divers,  parmi  lesquels  j'ai  vecu, 
m'ont  reconcilie  avec  elle.  Quand  je  n'aurais  tire  d'autre  benefice  de  mes  voyages  que  celui-la,  je  n'en  re- 

gretterais  ni  les  frais,  ni  les  fatigues. 

LE  COSMOPOLITE. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  TOE  JOHN  MURRAY,  32,  FLEET-STREET; 
WILLIAM    BLACKWOOD,    EDINBURGH;     AND   JOHN    GUMMING,    DUBLIN. 

By  Thomas  Davison,  White-Friars. 
1812. 


Reduced 


Leaf  in  original,  7.93x10.18  inches 


I  read  again,  and  for  the  third  time,  Miss 
Austen's  very  finely  written  novel  of  Pride 
and  Prejudice.  That  young  lady  had  a 
talent  for  describing  the  involvements,  feel- 
ings, and  characters  of  ordinary  life,  which 
is  to  me  the  most  wonderful  I  have  ever 
met  with.  The  big  bow-wow  I  can  do 
myself  like  any  one  going;  but  the  ex- 
quisite touch,  which  renders  commonplace 
things  and  characters  interesting  from  the 
truth  of  the  description  and  the  sentiment, 
is  denied  me.  What  a  pity  so  gifted  a 
creature  died  so  early ! 

SCOTT 


138 


PRIDE 


AND 


PREJUDICE 

A  NOVEL. 

JN  THREE  VOLUMES. 


AUTHOR   OF    "  SENSE  AND  SENSIBILITY." 


VOL.   I. 


Hondo  it: 

PRINTED    FOR   T.  EGERTON, 

MILITARY    LIBRARY,    WHITEHALL. 

1813. 


A  subtle-souled  psychologist 

SHELLEY 


140 


CHRISTABEL: 


KUBLA  KHAN, 

A  VISION; 

THE  PAINS  OF  SLEEP. 


BY 

S.  T.   COLERIDGE,  ESQ. 


LONDON : 

PRINTED  FOR  JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE-STREET, 

BY  WILLIAM  BULMER  AND  CO.  CLEVELAND-ROW, 
ST.  JAMES'S. 

1816. 


0  great  and  gallant  Scott, 

True  gentleman,  heart,  blood,  and  bone, 

1  would  it  had  been  my  lot 

To  have  seen  thee,  and  heard  thee,  and  known. 

TENNYSON 


142 


IVANHOE; 

A  ROMANCE. 

BY  "  THE  AUTHOR  OF  WAVERLEY,"  &c. 


Now  fitted  the  halier,  now  traversed  the  cart, 
And  often  took  leave, — but  seem'd  loth  to  depart  ! 

PRIOR. 


IN  THREE  VOLUMES. 


VOL.    I. 


EDINBURGH: 

PRINTED  FOR  ARCHIBALD  CONSTABLE  AND  CO.  EDINBURGH 

AND   HUJIST,   ROBINSON,  AND   CO.  90,  CHEAPS1DE,  LONDON. 

1820. 


He  is  made  one  with  Nature:  there  is  heard 
His  voice  in  all  her  music,  from  the  moan 
Of  thunder  to  the  song  of  night's  sweet  bird ; 
He  is  a  presence  to  be  felt  and  known 
In  darkness  and  in  light,  from  herb  and  stone, 
Spreading  itself  where'er  that  Power  may  move 
Which  has  withdrawn  his  being  to  its  own ; 
Which  wields  the  world  with  never-wearied  love, 
Sustains  it  from  beneath,  and  kindles  it  above. 

SHELLEY 


144 


LAMIA, 
ISABELLA, 

THE  EVE  OF  ST.  AGNES, 

AND 

OTHER  POEMS. 


BY  JOHN  KEATS, 

AUTHOR  OF  ENDTMION. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED  FOR  TAYLOR  AND  HESSEY, 
FLEET-STREET. 

1820. 


Cor  cordium 

EPITAPH 


146 


ADONAIS 


AN  ELEGY  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  JOHN  KEATS, 
AUTHOR  OF  ENDYMION,  HYPERION  ETC. 

BY 

PERCY.  B.  SHELLEY 


A<rr>fp  vpiv  /jttv  e 

Nuv  Sf  davwv ,  Xot/uirr««  i'aittfos  tv  <pQi 

PLATO. 


PISA 

WITH  THE  TYPES  OF  DIDOT 

MDCCCXXI. 


Leaf  in  original,  7.43x10.06  inches 


And  the  more  we  walk  around  his  image, 
and  the  closer  we  look,  the  more  nearly  we 
arrive  at  this  conclusion,  that  the  Elia  on 
our  shelves  is  all  but  the  same  being  as  the 
pleasant  Charles  who  was  so  loved  by  his 
friends,  who  ransomed  from  the  stalls,  to 
use  old  Richard  of  Bury's  phrase,  his 
Thomas  Browne  and  the  "  dear  silly  old 
angel"  Fuller,  and  who  stammered  out  such 
quaint  jests  and  puns  —  ''Saint  Charles," 
as  Thackeray  once  called  him,  while  look- 
ing at  one  of  his  half-mad  letters,  and 
remembering  his  devotion  to  that  quite  mad 

sister. 

FITZGERALD 


148 


E   L   I   A. 


ESSAYS  WHICH  HAVE  APPEARED  UNDER  THAT  SIGNATURE 

IN  THE 

LONDON  MAGAZINE. 


LONDON : 
PRINTED  FOR  TAYLOR  AND  HESSEY, 

FLEET-STREET. 
1823. 


The  most  confiding  of  diarists,  the  most  harmless 
of  turncoats,  the  most  wondering  of  quidnuncs, 
the  fondest  and  most  penitential  of  faithless  hus- 
bands, the  most  admiring,  yet  grieving,  of  the 
beholders  of  the  ladies  of  Charles  II,  the  Sancho 
Panza  of  the  most  insipid  of  Quixotes,  James  II, 
who  did  bestow  on  him  (in  naval  matters)  the 
government  of  a  certain  "  island,"  which,  to  say  the 
truth,  he  administered  to  the  surprise  and  edifi- 
cation of  all  who  bantered  him.  Many  official 
patriots  have,  doubtless,  existed  since  his  time, 
and  thousands,  nay  millions  of  respectable  men  of 
all  sorts  gone  to  their  long  account,  more  or  less 
grave  in  public,  and  frail  to  their  consciences; 
but  when  shall  we  meet  with  such  another  as  he 
was  ? 

HUNT 


150 


MEMOIRS 


OF 

SAMUEL   PEPYS,  ESQ.  F.R.S. 

SECRETARY  TO  THE  ADMIRALTY 
IN  THE  REIGNS  OF  CHARLES  II.  AND  JAMES  IL 

COMPRISING 

HIS     DIARY 

FROM    1659    TO     1669, 

DECIPHERED    BY   THE   REV.  JOHN   SMITH,  A.  B.   OF   ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE,   CAMBRIDGE, 

FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  SHORT-HAND  MS,  IN  THE  PEPYSIAN  LIBRARY, 

AND   A   SELECTION   FROM   HTS 

PRIVATE    CORRESPONDENCE. 


EDITED  BY 

RICHARD,  LORD  BRAYBROOKE. 


IN    TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  I. 


LONDON: 

HENRY    COLBURN,    NEW   BURLINGTON   STREET. 

MDCCCXXV. 


Reduced  Leaf  in  original,  9.25x11.87  inches 


While  the  love  of  country  continues 
to  prevail,  his  memory  will  exist  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people. 

WEBSTER 


152 


THE  LAST 


or 


THE    MOHICANS; 


A   NARRATIVE   OF 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OP  "THE  PIONEERS." 


"  Mhlike  me  not,  for  my  complexion, 

The  shadowed  livery  of  the  burnished  sun." 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  I. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

.  H.  C.    CAREY  &  I.  LEA-CHESSUT-STUEET. 

1820. 


And  through  the  trumpet  of  a  child  of  Rome 
Rang  the  pure  music  of  the  flutes  of  Greece. 


SWINBURNE 


154 


PERICLES    AND    ASPASIA 


BY 


WALTER  SAVAGE  LANDOR,  ESQ. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 


VOL.    I. 


LONDON 

SAUNDERS  AND  OTLEY,   CONDUIT  STREET. 
1836. 


Thankfully  I  take  my  share  of 
love  and  kindness  which  this 
generous  and  gentle  and  char- 
itable soul  has  contributed  to 
the  world.  I  take  and  enjoy 
my  share  and  say  a  benedic- 
tion for  the  meal. 

THACKERAY 


156 


CJ-UUIL8S 


J^Al-i-       /  8  <P 


Carlyle  alone  with  his  wide  humanity  has,  since 
Coleridge,  kept  to  us  the  promises  of  England. 
His  provokes  rather  than  informs.  He  blows 
down  narrow  walls,  and  struggles,  in  a  lurid  light, 
like  the  J6tuns,  to  throw  the  old  woman  Time ; 
in  his  work  there  is  too  much  of  the  anvil  and  the 
forge,  not  enough  hay-making  under  the  sun. 
He  makes  us  act  rather  than  think ;  he  does  not 
say,  know  thyself,  which  is  impossible,  but  know 
thy  work.  He  has  no  pillars  of  Hercules,  no 
clear  goal,  but  an  endless  Atlantis  horizon.  He 
exaggerates.  Yes :  but  he  makes  the  hour  great, 
the  future  bright,  the  reverence  and  admiration 
strong :  while  mere  precise  fact  is  a  coil  of  lead. 

THOREAU 


158 


SARTOR    RESARTUS. 


IN  THREE  BOOKS. 


Sfaprfatto  for  JFrfente  tow  Jptaser's 


Mein  Vermachtniss,  wie  herrlich  weit  und  breit ! 

Die  Zeit  ist  mein  Vermachtniss,  mein  Acker  ist  die  Zeit. 


LONDON: 

JAMES  FRASER,  215  REGENT  STREET. 


M.DCCC.XXXIV. 


It  was  good  to  meet  him  in  the 
wood-paths  with  that  pure  in- 
tellectual gleam  diffused  about 
his  presence,  like  the  garment 
of  a  shining  one;  and  he  so  quiet, 
so  simple,  so  without  pretension, 
encountering  each  man  as  if  ex- 
pecting to  receive  more  than  he 

could  impart. 

HAWTHORNE 


1 60 


NATURE. 


"  Nature  is  but  an  image  or  imitation  of  wisdom,  the  last  thing 
of  the  soul  j  nature  being  a  thing:  which  doth  only  do,  but  not 
know." 

PLOTINUS. 


BOSTON: 

JAMES    MUNROE   AND    COMPANY. 

M  DCCC  XXXVI. 


The  result  of  all  his  labors  of 
research,  thought  and  compo- 
sition was  a  history  possessing 
the  unity,  variety  and  interest 
of  a  magnificent  poem. 

WHIPPLE 


162 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


CONdUEST  OF   PERU, 


WITH  A  PRELIMINARY  VIEW 


CIVILIZATION  OF  THE  INCAS. 


BY 

WILLIAM  H.  PRESCOTT, 

CORRESPONDING   MEMBER  OF'THE  FRENCU  INSTITUTE;   OP  TUB  ROYAL  ACADEMY 
OP  HISTORY  AT  MADRID,  ETC. 


"  Congests  cumulantur  opes,  orbisque  rapinas 
Accipit." 

CLAUDIAN,  In  Ruf.,  lib.  i.,  v.  194. 

"So  color  de  religion 
Van  a  buscar  plata  y  oro 
Del  encubierto  tesoro." 

LOPE  DE  VEGA,  El  Nuevo  Mundo,  Jorn.  I. 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 

VOLUME    I. 


NEW  YORK: 
HARPER  AND  BROTHERS,  82  CLIFF  STREET. 

M  DCCC  XLV1I. 


When  all  is  said,  Poe  remains  a  master 
of  fantastic  and  melancholy  sound.  Some 
foolish  old  legend  tells  of  a  musician  who 
surpassed  all  his  rivals.  His  strains  were 
unearthly  sad,  and  ravished  the  ears  of 
those  who  listened  with  a  strange  melan- 
choly. Yet  his  viol  had  but  a  single 
string,  and  the  framework  was  fashioned 
out  of  a  dead  woman's  breast-bone.  Poe's 
verse — the  parallel  is  much  in  his  own 
taste — resembles  that  player's  minstrelsy. 

LANG 


164 


THE    RAVEN 


AND 


OTHER     POEMS 


EDGAR  A.   POE. 


NEW  YORK: 
WILEY  AND  PUTNAM,  161  BROADWAY. 

1845. 


Strew  with  laurel  the  grave 
Of  the  early-dying!    Alas, 
Early  she  goes  on  the  path 
To  the  silent  country,  and  leaves 
Half  her  laurels  unwon, 
Dying  too  soon  !  —  yet  green 
Laurels  she  had,  and  a  course 
Short,  but  redoubled  by  fame. 

ARNOLD 


1 66 


JANE    EYRE. 


EDITED    BY 

C  U  R  R  E  R    BELL. 


IN    THREE    VOLUMES. 
VOL.   I. 


LONDON: 
SMITH,  ELDER,  AND  CO.,  CORNHILL. 

1847. 


The  poem  already  is  a  little 
classic,  and  will  remain  one, 
just  as  surely  as  The  Vicar 
of  Wakefield,  The  Deserted 
Village,  or  any  other  sweet 
and  pious  idyl  of  our  English 

tongue. 

STEDMAN 


1 68 


EVANGELTNE, 


TALE     OF     ACADIE. 


BT 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 


BOSTON: 
WILLIAM  D.  TICKNOR  &  COMPANY. 

1847. 


The  most  exquisite  poetry  hitherto 
written  by  a  woman. 

STEDMAN 


170 


SONNETS. 


BY 

E.  B.  B. 


BEADING: 

[NOT  FOK  PUBLICATION.] 

1847. 


What  racy  talks  of  Yankee-land  he  had  ! 
Up-country  girl,  up-country  farmer-lad; 
The  regnant  clergy  of  the  time  of  old 
In  wig  and  gown :  —  tales  not  to  be  retold. 

CLOUGH 


172 


MELIB(EUS-HIPPONAX. 


THE 


i    I  o  to 


EDITED, 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION,  NOTES,  GLOSSARY, 
AND  COPIOUS  INDEX, 


BY 

HOMER    WILBUR,  A.  M,, 

PASTOR  OF  THE  FIRST  CHURCH  IN  JAALAM,   AND    (PROSPECTIVE)   MEMBER  OF 
MANY  LITERARY,   LEARNED  AND   SCIENTIFIC   SOCIETIES, 

(for  which  seepage  v.) 


The  ploughman's  whistle,  or  the  trivial  flute, 
Finds  more  respect  than  great  Apollo's  lute. 

Quarles's  Emblems,  B.  n.  E.  8. 

Margaritas,  munde  porcine,  calcasti :  en,  eiliquas  accipo. 

Jac.  Car.  Fil.  ad  Pub.  Leg.  §  1. 


CAMBRIDGE: 
PUBLISHED   BY   GEORGE   NICHOLS. 

1848. 


There  is  a  man  in  our  own  days  whose  words  are 
not  framed  to  tickle  delicate  ears;  who,  to  my 
thinking,  comes  before  the  great  ones  of  society 
much  as  the  son  of  Imlah  came  before  the  throned 
Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel;  and  who  speaks  truth 
as  deep,  with  a  power  as  prophet-like  and  as  vital 
—  a  mien  as  dauntless  and  as  daring.  Is  the 
satirist  of  Vanity  Fair  admired  in  high  places  ?  — 
They  say  he  is  like  Fielding ;  they  talk  of  his  wit, 
humour,  comic  powers.  He  resembles  Fielding 
as  an  eagle  does  a  vulture :  Fielding  could  stoop 
on  carrion,  but  Thackeray  never  does.  His  wit 
is  bright,  his  humour  attractive,  but  both  bear  the 
same  relation  to  his  serious  genius  that  the  mere 
lambent  sheet-lightning,  playing  under  the  edge 
of  the  summer  cloud,  does  to  the  electric  death- 
spark  hid  in  its  womb. 

BRONTE 


-L  OJfD  ON 

BRADBURY  &   EVANS,  BOUVERIE     STREET, 
1848 


The  cleverest  and  most 
fascinating  of  narrators. 

FREEMAN 


176 


THE 


HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND 


YROM 


THE  ACCESSION  OF  JAMES  II. 


BY 


THOMAS    BABINGTON    MACAULAY. 


VOLUME  I. 


LONDON: 

PRINTED    FOR 

LONGMAN,  BROWN,  GREEN,  AND  LONGMANS, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
1849. 


Shakespeare  and  Milton — what  third  blazoned  name 

Shall  lips  of  after-ages  link  to  these? 

His  who,  beside  the  wild  encircling  seas, 
Was  England's  voice,  her  voice  with  one  acclaim, 
For  threescore  years;  whose  word  of  praise  was  fame, 

Whose  scorn  gave  pause  to  man's  iniquities. 

What  strain  was  his  in  that  Crimean  war  ? 
A  bugle  call  in  battle,  a  low  breath, 
Plaintive  and  sweet  above  the  fields  of  death ! 
So  year  by  year  the  music  rolled  afar, 
From  Euxine  wastes  to  flowery  Kandahar, 
Bearing  the  laurel  or  the  cypress  wreath. 

Others  shall  have  their  little  space  of  time, 
Their  proper  niche  and  bust,  then  fade  away 
Into  the  darkness,  poets  of  a  day; 
But  thou,  O  builder  of  enduring  rhyme, 
Thou  shalt  not  pass !     Thy  fame  in  every  clime 
On  earth  shall  live  where  Saxon  speech  has  sway. 

ALDRICH 


IN    MEMORIAM. 


LONDON . 
EDWARD  MOXON,  DOVER  STREET. 

1850. 


New  England's  poet,  soul  reserved  and  deep, 
November  nature  with  a  name  of  May. 


LOWELL 


1 80 


THE 


SCAELET   LETTER, 


A    ROMANCE. 


BY 


NATHANIEL    HAWTHORNE. 


BOSTON: 
TICKNOR,    REED,   AND    FIELDS 

M  DCCC.L. 


Works  of  imagination  written  with 
an  aim  to  immediate  impression  are 
commonly  ephemeral ;  but  the  cre- 
ative faculty  of  Mrs.  Stowe,  like 
that  of  Cervantes  in  Don  Quixote 
and  of  Fielding  in  Joseph  Andrews, 
overpowered  the  narrow  specialty 
of  her  design,  and  expanded  a  lo- 
cal and  temporary  theme  with  the 
cosmopolitanism  of  genius. 

LOWELL 


182 


UNCLE  TOM'S  CABIN; 


OR, 


LIFE   AMONG   THE   LOWLY. 


BY 


HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 


VOL.    I. 


BOSTON: 
JOHN    P.    JEWETT    &    COMPANY 

CLEVELAND,    OHIO: 

JEWETT,  PROCTOR  &  WORTHINGTON. 

1852. 


A  strange,  unexpected  and,  I 
believe,  most  true  and  excel- 
lent sermon  in  Stones — as  well 
as  the  best  piece  of  school- 
mastery  in  architectonics. 

CARLYLE 


184 


THE 


f 


VOLUME  THE  FIRST. 


jFoun&ations, 


BY    JOHN    RUSKIN, 


AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  SEVEN  LAMPS  OF  ARCHITECTURE,"  "  MODERN  PAINTERS," 

ETC.  ETC. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  DRAWN  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


LONDON: 

SMITH,    ELDER,    AND    CO.,  65.  CORNHILL. 

1851. 


Leaf  in  original,  7x10  inches 


There  is  delight  in  singing,  tho'  none  hear 

Besides  the  singer ;  and  there  is  delight 

In  praising,  tho'  the  praiser  sit  alone 

And  see  the  prais'd  far  off  him,  far  above. 

Shakespeare  is  not  our  poet,  but  the  world's ; 

Therefore  on  him  no  speech  !  and  brief  for  thee, 

Browning !     Since  Chaucer  was  alive  and  hale, 

No  man  hath  walkt  along  our  roads  with  step 

So  active,  so  inquiring  eye,  or  tongue 

So  varied  in  discovery.     But  warmer  climes 

Give  brighter  plumage,  stronger  wing :  the  breeze 

Of  Alpine  hights  thou  playest  with,  borne  on 

Beyond  Sorrento  and  Amalfi,  where 

The  Siren  waits  thee,  singing  song  for  song. 

LANDOR 


186 


BT 


ROBERT    BROWNING. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  I. 


LONDON : 

CHAPMAN  AND  HALL,  193,  PICCADILLY. 
1855. 


Far  from  making  his  book  a  mere 
register  of  events,  he  has  penetra- 
ted deep  below  the  surface  and  ex- 
plored the  causes  of  these  events. 
He  has  carefully  studied  the  phy- 
siognomy of  the  times  and  given 
finished  portraits  of  the  great  men 
who  conducted  the  march  of  the 
revolution. 

PRESCOTT 


188 


THE    RISE 


OF   THE 


DUTCH    REPUBLIC. 


BY   JOHN    LOTHROP    MOTLEY 


IN    THREE     VOLUMES. 

VOLL 


NEW    YORK : 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 

329    &    331    PEARL    STREET. 
1856. 


The  sphere  which  she  has  made 
specially  her  own  is  that  quiet 
English  country  life  which  she 
knew  in  early  youth.  She  has 
done  for  it  what  Scott  did  for  the 
Scotch  peasantry,  or  Fielding  for 
the  eighteenth  century  English- 
man, or  Thackeray  for  the  higher 
social  stratum  of  his  time. 

STEPHEN 


190 


ADAM     BEDE 


BY 

GEORGE     ELIOT 

AUTHOR  OF 

"SCENES  OF  CLEHICAL  LIFE" 


"  So  that  ye  may  have 
Clear  images  before  your  gladden'd  eyes 
Of  nature's  unambitious  underwood 
And  flowers  that  prosper  in  the  shade.     And  when 
I  speak  of  such  among  the  flock  as  swerved 
Or  fell,  those  only  shall  be  singled  out 
Upon  whoae  lapse,  or  error,  something  more 
Than  brotherly  forgiveness  may  attend." 
WORDSWORTH. 


IN    THREE    VOLUMES 

VOL.    I. 


WILLIAM    BLACKWOOD     AND     SONS 

EDINBURGH    AND    LONDON 

MDCCCLIX 

Tht  Right  of  Translation  is  reserved. 


The  most  potent  instrument 
for  the  extension  of  the  realm 
of  natural  knowledge  which 
has  come  into  men's  hands 
since  the  publication  of  New- 
ton's Principia  is  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species. 

HUXLEY 


192 


ON 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SPECIES 

BY  MEANS  OF  NATURAL  SELECTION, 


OR  THE 


PRESERVATION  OF  FAVOURED  RACES  IN  THE  STRUGGLE 

FOR  LIFE. 


BY  CHARLES  DARWIN,  M.A., 

FELLOW  OF  THE  ROYAL,  GEOLOGICAL,  LINN^EAN,  ETC.,  SOCIETIES; 

AUTHOR  OF  '  JOURNAL  OF  RESEARCHES  DURING  H.  M.  S.  BEAGLE'S  VOYAGE 
ROUND  THE  WORLD.' 


LONDON: 
JOHN  MURRAY,   ALBEMARLE  STREET. 

1859. 

Tlie  right  of  Translation  is  reserved. 


A  planet  equal  to  the  sun 
Which  cast  it,  that  large  infidel 
Your  Omar. 

TENNYSON 


194 


RUBAIYAT 


OF 


OMAR  KHAYYAM, 


THE  ASTRONOMER-POET  OF  PERSIA. 


Craturtatefc  into 


LONDON: 

BERNARD   QUARITCH, 

CASTLE  STREET,  LEICESTER  SQUARE. 

1859. 


I  know  of  no  writings  which  combine, 
as  Cardinal  Newman's  do,  so  pene- 
trating an  insight  into  the  realities  of 
the  human  world  around  us  in  all  its 
details,  with  so  unwavering  an  in- 
wardness of  standard  in  estimating 
and  judging  that  world ;  so  steady  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  vanity  of  human 
life  with  so  steady  a  love  for  that  which 
is  not  vanity  or  vexation  of  spirit. 

HUTTON 


196 


APOLOGIA  PRO  VITA  SUA: 


BEING 


to  a 


ENTITLED 


"WHAT,  THEN,  DOES  DR.  NEWMAN  MEAN?" 


'  Commit  thy  way  to  the  Lord,  and  trust  in  Him,  and  He  will  do  it. 
And  He  will  bring  forth  thy  justice  as  the  light,  and  thy  judg- 
ment as  the  noon-day." 


BY  JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN,  D.D. 


LONDON: 

LONGMAN.  GREEN,  LONGMAN,  ROBERTS,  AND  GREEN. 

1864. 


In  his  prose  writings  there  was  discernible 
an  intellectual  hauteur  which  contrasted 
with  the  uneasiness  and  moral  incertitude 
of  his  versified  moods,  and  which  implied 
that  a  dogmatist  stood  erect  under  the 
shifting  sensitiveness  of  the  poet.  A  dog- 
matist— for  Mr.  Arnold  is  not  merely  a 
critic  who  interprets  the  minds  of  other  men 
through  his  sensitiveness  and  his  sympa- 
thies; he  delivers  with  authority  the  con- 
clusions of  his  intellect;  he  formulates  ideas. 

DOWDEN 


198 


ESSAYS    IN    CRITICISM. 


BY 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD, 

PROFESSOR  OF   POETRY   IN   THE  UNIVERSITY   OF  OXFORD.. 


Bonbon  anb 
MACMILLAN     AND     CO. 
1865. 


The  most  faithful  picture  of  our 
northern  winter  that  has  yet  been 
put  into  poetry. 

BURROUGHS 


200 


S  N  O  W-BO  UN  D. 


A    WINTER    IDYL. 


BY 


JOHN    GREENLEAF    WHITTIER. 


BOSTON: 

TICKNOR    AND    FIELDS 
1866. 


